Chasing maximal performance: a cautionary tale from the celebrated jumping frogs of Calaveras County
Chasing maximal performance: a cautionary tale from the celebrated jumping frogs of Calaveras County
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.090357
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发表时间：
2013-11-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Roberts, T. J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Astley, H. C.;Abbott, E. M.;Roberts, T. J.
最大表现是了解生物体生物学许多方面的基本指标，但它可能很难确定，因为测量的最大可能只反映了努力的峰值水平，而不是生理极限。我们利用青蛙跳跃比赛提供的一个独特的机会来评估现有实验室对牛蛙(Rana Catesbeiana)最大跳跃表现的估计的有效性。我们在卡拉维拉斯县跳蛙禧年比赛中录制了3124次牛蛙跳跃的视频，并根据这些图像确定了跳跃距离，并对跳跃场地进行了校准。青蛙被分成两组：一组是由博览会组织者收集并由普通公众跳跃的租来的青蛙，另一组是由经验丰富的专业团队收集并跳跃的青蛙。有记录的跳跃中有58%的跳跃超过了文献中的最大跳跃距离(1.295米)，最长的跳跃为2.2m。与租来的青蛙相比，专业跳蛙跳得更远，这一群体的跳跃距离分布向跳远倾斜。经过计算的肌肉运动、历史记录和跳跃距离的扭曲分布都表明，最长的跳跃代表了这个物种的真正表现极限。使用重采样，我们估计了在不同样本量下观察到给定跳跃距离的概率，表明需要大样本量来检测罕见的最大跳跃。这些结果表明了样本量、动物动机和生理条件对准确的最大性能估计的重要性。
Maximal performance is an essential metric for understanding many aspects of an organism's biology, but it can be difficult to determine because a measured maximum may reflect only a peak level of effort, not a physiological limit. We used a unique opportunity provided by a frog jumping contest to evaluate the validity of existing laboratory estimates of maximum jumping performance in bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). We recorded video of 3124 bullfrog jumps over the course of the 4-day contest at the Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee, and determined jump distance from these images and a calibration of the jump arena. Frogs were divided into two groups: 'rental' frogs collected by fair organizers and jumped by the general public, and frogs collected and jumped by experienced, 'professional' teams. A total of 58% of recorded jumps surpassed the maximum jump distance in the literature (1.295 m), and the longest jump was 2.2 m. Compared with rental frogs, professionally jumped frogs jumped farther, and the distribution of jump distances for this group was skewed towards long jumps. Calculated muscular work, historical records and the skewed distribution of jump distances all suggest that the longest jumps represent the true performance limit for this species. Using resampling, we estimated the probability of observing a given jump distance for various sample sizes, showing that large sample sizes are required to detect rare maximal jumps. These results show the importance of sample size, animal motivation and physiological conditions for accurate maximal performance estimates.