Collaborative Proposal: Kinematics of Quadrupedal Locomotion in Free-Ranging Primates

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The majority of primate species are partially or completely tree-dwelling (arboreal), and they often captivate observers with their ability to walk and run with ease over narrow, steep, and bending branches. The goal of this project is to investigate the mechanics of quadrupedal locomotion (movement on four limbs) in wild primates moving in their natural environments, to provide a deeper understanding of primate arboreal athleticism. Past studies of primate quadrupedal mechanics have largely come from laboratory-based research, but in this study researchers will use advanced and durable video technologies that permit high-resolution measures of locomotion in the wild. The results of this project will further our understanding of locomotor adaptations that are thought to be central to the evolution of our early primate ancestors. The project will support undergraduate and graduate student training, and will enhance K-12 STEM education and public outreach through high school programs and collaborations with established science outreach programs at UT Austin. Findings from this project will be relevant to primate conservation efforts, science education, and community outreach at the field location. This project will test hypotheses about the proximate and ultimate determinants of primate locomotor adaptation through analysis of ten free-ranging New World monkey species at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in Ecuador. The investigators will document the locomotor kinematics of quadrupedal primates moving in their natural habitats using multi-camera, high-speed, high-resolution videography, sampling arboreal locomotion on a range of substrates and quantifying standard kinematic spatiotemporal variables. The morphology of the arboreal locomotor substrates will be quantified using novel methods, with specific measurements including substrate diameter, three-dimensional substrate orientation, substrate height above the ground, and substrate compliance. By analyzing the determinants of kinematic variation in an explicit phylogenetic framework, researchers will explore historical, allometric, and functional influences on primate quadrupedalism. This research will add to existing laboratory and field data, breaking new ground by lending ecological validity to standard metrics of gait performance and increasing the precision of standard field measurements of kinematics and substrate variation. The comparative phylogenetic framework will allow "field" testing of functional associations between kinematic features and aspects of substrate variation that have been previously demonstrated only in laboratory studies. Such knowledge is critical to understanding the adaptive context in which the distinctive aspects of primate quadrupedalism evolved.