Integration of biomechanical compliance, leverage, and power in elephant limbs

Charlotte E Miller,Richard Lair,John R Hutchinson,Lei Ren

doi:10.1073/pnas.0911396107

Abstract

The structure and motion of elephant limbs are unusual compared with those of other animals. Elephants stand and move with straighter limbs (at least when walking), and have limited speed and gait. We devised novel experiments to examine how the limbs of elephants support and propel their mass and to explore the factors that may constrain locomotor performance in these largest of living land animals. We demonstrate that elephant limbs are remarkably compliant even in walking, which maintains low peak forces. Dogma defines elephant limbs as extremely "columnar" for effective weight support, but we demonstrate that limb effective mechanical advantage (EMA) is roughly one-third of that predicted for their size. EMA in elephants is actually smaller than that in horses, which are only one-tenth their mass; it is comparable to human limb values. EMA drops sharply with speed in elephants, as it does in humans. Muscle forces therefore must increase as the limbs become more flexed, and we show how this flexion translates to greater volumes of muscle recruited for locomotion and hence metabolic cost. Surprisingly, elephants use their forelimbs and hindlimbs in similar braking and propulsive roles, not dividing these functions among limbs as was previously assumed or as in other quadrupeds. Thus, their limb function is analogous to four-wheel-drive vehicles. To achieve the observed limb compliance and low peak forces, elephants synchronize their limb dynamics in the vertical direction, but incur considerable mechanical costs from limbs working against each other horizontally.

Highlights

Elephants have unusual limb structure and function
Elephants are relevant to a major biomechanical concept regarding the relationship of body size and the limbs’ effective mechanical advantage [EMA; the amount of ground reaction force (GRF) generated at the foot per unit muscle force, or “overall leverage”] (Fig. 1A)
As the largest living land animals, elephants provide an exciting case study of this phenomenon: Do they use one or both of the two aforementioned mechanical strategies? Reduced athletic performance has been strongly indicated by previous studies of elephants (1–7, 10), but EMA has not been quantified for animals larger than horses

Summary

Introduction

Elephants have unusual limb structure and function. They use walking footfall patterns, have seemingly straightened limbs, and lack an aerial phase in their stride throughout their speed range (1–7). Elephants seem unable to exceed speeds of ∼7 ms−1 (15 mph) (1–5) These odd features relate to elephants’ massive size and have broader comparative relevance, but they remain unexplored in a deeper biomechanical context. Larger animals tend to increase their EMA mainly by straightening their limbs, thereby reducing GRF moment arms. This helps maintain bone stresses roughly constant across a wide range of animal sizes (14– 16). EMA could be maximized by continuing scaling trends from smaller animals Athletic performance, such as peak GRFs attainable (and faster speeds and gaits), might be reduced. We recorded biomechanical data for 168 steady-state strides from six Asian elephants (Elephas maximus Linnaeus 1758), at speeds of 0.64–4.83 ms−1

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