Browsing Faculty of Arts and Sciences by Keyword "flight"

Now showing items 1-5 of 5

    • Contractile properties of the pigeon supracoracoideus during different modes of flight 

      Tobalske, Brett W.; Biewener, Andrew Austin (The Company of Biologists, 2008)
      The supracoracoideus (SUPRA) is the primary upstroke muscle for avian flight and is the antagonist to the downstroke muscle, the pectoralis (PECT). We studied in vivo contractile properties and mechanical power output of ...

    • Effects of Flight Speed upon Muscle Activity in Hummingbirds 

      Tobalske, Bret W.; Biewener, Andrew Austin; Warrick, Douglas R.; Hedrick, Tyson L.; Powers, Donald R. (The Company of Biologists, 2010)
      Hummingbirds have the smallest body size and highest wingbeat frequencies of all flying vertebrates, so they represent one endpoint for evaluating the effects of body size on sustained muscle function and flight performance. ...

    • The Evolution of Intron Size in Amniotes: A Role for Powered Flight? 

      Zhang, Qu; Edwards, Scott V. (Oxford University Press, 2012)
      Intronic DNA is a major component of eukaryotic genes and genomes and can be subject to selective constraint and have functions in gene regulation. Intron size is of particular interest given that it is thought to be the ...

    • Intermittent locomotion as an optimal control strategy 

      Paoletti, P.; Mahadevan, Lakshminarayanan (The Royal Society, 2014)
      Birds, fish and other animals routinely use unsteady effects to save energy by alternating between phases of active propulsion and passive coasting. Here, we construct a minimal model for such behaviour that can be couched ...

    • Morphological and kinematic basis of the hummingbird flight stroke: scaling of flight muscle transmission ratio 

      Hedrick, T. L.; Tobalske, B. W.; Ros, Ivo; Warrick, D. R.; Biewener, Andrew Austin (The Royal Society, 2011)
      Hummingbirds (Trochilidae) are widely known for their insect-like flight strokes characterized by high wing beat frequency, small muscle strains and a highly supinated wing orientation during upstroke that allows for lift ...