Unlocking the secrets of kangaroo locomotor energetics: Postural adaptations underpin increased tendon stress in hopping kangaroos

  1. Lauren H. Thornton
  2. Taylor J.M. Dick
  3. John R. Hutchinson
  4. Glen A. Lichtwark
  5. Craig P. McGowan
  6. Jonas Rubenson
  7. Alexis Wiktorowicz-Conroy
  8. Christofer J. Clemente

  • Curated by eLife

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    eLife assessment

    This valuable biomechanical analysis of kangaroo kinematics and kinetics across a range of hopping speeds and masses is a step towards understanding a long-standing problem in locomotion biomechanics: the mechanism for how, unlike other mammals, kangaroos are able to increase hopping speed without a concomitant increase in metabolic cost. Based on their suggestion that kangaroo posture changes with speed increase tendon stress/strain and hence elastic energy storage/return, the authors imply (but do not show quantitatively or qualitatively) that the greater tendon elastic energy storage/return counteracts the increased cost of generating muscular force at faster speeds and allows for the invariance in metabolic cost. The methods are impressive, but there is currently only limited evidence for increased tendon stress/strain at faster speeds, and the support for any conclusion metabolic energy expenditure is inadequate.

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Abstract

Hopping kangaroos exhibit remarkably little change in their rate of metabolic energy expenditure with locomotor speed compared to other running animals. This phenomenon may be related to greater elastic energy savings due to increasing tendon stress; however, the mechanisms which enable the rise in stress remain poorly understood. In this study, we created a three-dimensional (3D) kangaroo musculoskeletal model, integrating 3D motion capture and force plate data, to analyse the kinematics and kinetics of hopping red and grey kangaroos. Using our model, we evaluated how body mass and speed influence (i) hindlimb posture, (ii) effective mechanical advantage (EMA), and (iii) the associated tendon stress in the ankle extensors and (iv) ankle work during hopping. We found that increasing ankle dorsiflexion and metatarsophalangeal plantarflexion likely played an important role in decreasing ankle EMA by altering both the muscle and external moment arms, which subsequently increased energy absorption and peak tendon stress at the ankle. Surprisingly, kangaroo hindlimb posture appeared to contribute to increased tendon stress, thereby elucidating a potential mechanism behind the increase in stress with speed. These posture-mediated increases in elastic energy savings could be a key factor enabling kangaroos to achieve energetic benefits at faster hopping speeds, but may limit the performance of large kangaroos due to the risk of tendon rupture.

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  1. Version published to 10.7554/elife.96437.1 on eLife
  2. Version published to 10.7554/elife.96437 on eLife
  3. eLife

    Author response:

    Public Reviews:

    We thank the reviewers for their overall positive assessments and constructive feedback

    Reviewer #1 (Public Review):

    Summary:

    The study explored the biomechanics of kangaroo hopping across both speed and animal size to try and explain the unique and remarkable energetics of kangaroo locomotion.

    Strengths:

    The study brings kangaroo locomotion biomechanics into the 21st century. It is a remarkably difficult project to accomplish. There is excellent attention to detail, supported by clear writing and figures.

    Weaknesses:

    The authors oversell their findings, but the mystery still persists.

    The manuscript lacks a big-picture summary with pointers to how one might resolve the big question.

    General Comments

    This is a very impressive tour de force by an all-star collaborative team of researchers. The study represents a tremendous leap forward (pun intended) in terms of our understanding of kangaroo locomotion. Some might wonder why such an unusual species is of much interest. But, in my opinion, the classic study by Dawson and Taylor in 1973 of kangaroos launched the modern era of running biomechanics/energetics and applies to varying degrees to all animals that use bouncing gaits (running, trotting, galloping and of course hopping). The puzzling metabolic energetics findings of Dawson & Taylor (little if any increase in metabolic power despite increasing forward speed) remain a giant unsolved problem in comparative locomotor biomechanics and energetics. It is our "dark matter problem".

    Thank you for the kind words

    This study is certainly a hop towards solving the problem. But, the title of the paper overpromises and the authors present little attempt to provide an overview of the remaining big issues.

    We will modify the title to reflect this comment.

    The study clearly shows that the ankle and to a lesser extent the mtp joint are where the action is. They clearly show in great detail by how much and by what means the ankle joint tendons experience increased stress at faster forward speeds.

    Since these were zoo animals, direct measures were not feasible, but the conclusion that the tendons are storing and returning more elastic energy per hop at faster speeds is solid.

    The conclusion that net muscle work per hop changes little from slow to fast forward speeds is also solid.

    Doing less muscle work can only be good if one is trying to minimize metabolic energy consumption. However, to achieve greater tendon stresses, there must be greater muscle forces. Unless one is willing to reject the premise of the cost of generating force hypothesis, that is an important issue to confront.

    Further, the present data support the Kram & Dawson finding of decreased contact times at faster forward speeds. Kram & Taylor and subsequent applications of (and challenges to) their approach supports the idea that shorter contact times (tc) require recruiting more expensive muscle fibers and hence greater metabolic costs. Therefore, I think that it is incumbent on the present authors to clarify that this study has still not tied up the metabolic energetics across speed problems and placed a bow atop the package.

    Fortunately, I am confident that the impressive collective brain power that comprises this author list can craft a paragraph or two that summarizes these ideas and points out how the group is now uniquely and enviably poised to explore the problem more using a dynamic SIMM model that incorporates muscle energetics (perhaps ala' Umberger et al.). Or perhaps they have other ideas about how they can really solve the problem.

    You have raised important points, thank you for this feedback. We will add a paragraph discussing the limitations of our study and ensure the revised manuscript makes it clear which mysteries remain. We intend to address muscle forces, contact time, and energetics in future work when we have implemented all hindlimb muscles within the musculoskeletal model.

    I have a few issues with the other half of this study (i.e. animal size effects). I would enjoy reading a new paragraph by these authors in the Discussion that considers the evolutionary origins and implications of such small safety factors. Surely, it would need to be speculative, but that's OK.

    We will integrate this into the discussion.

    Reviewer #2 (Public Review):

    Summary

    This is a fascinating topic that has intrigued scientists for decades. I applaud the authors for trying to tackle this enigma. In this manuscript, the authors primarily measured hopping biomechanics data from kangaroos and performed inverse dynamics.

    While these biomechanical analyses were thorough and impressively incorporated collected anatomical data and an Opensim model, I'm afraid that they did not satisfactorily address how kangaroos can hop faster and not consume more metabolic energy, unique from other animals.

    Noticeably, the authors did not collect metabolic data nor did they model metabolic rates using their modelling framework. Instead, they performed a somewhat traditional inverse dynamics analysis from multiple animals hopping at a self-selected speed.

    We aimed to provide a joint-level explanation, but we will address the limitations of not modelling the energy consumers themselves (the skeletal muscles) in the revised manuscript. We plan to expand upon muscle level energetics in the future with a more detailed MSK model.

    Within these analyses, the authors largely focused on ankle EMA, discussing its potential importance (because it affects tendon stress, which affects tendon strain energy, which affects muscle mechanics) on the metabolic cost of hopping. However, EMA was roughly estimated (CoP was fixed to the foot, not measured)…

    As noted in our methods, EMA was not calculated from a fixed centre of pressure (CoP). We did fix the medial-lateral position, owing to the fact that both feet contacted the force plate together, but the anteroposterior movement of the CoP was recorded by the force plate and thus allowed to move. We report the movement (or lack of movement) in our results. The anterior-posterior axis is the most relevant to lengthening or shortening the distance of the ‘out-lever’ R, and thereby EMA.

    It is necessary to assume fixed medial-lateral position because a single force trace and CoP is recorded when two feet land on the force plate. The medial-lateral forces on each foot cancel out so there is no overall medial-lateral movement if the forces are symmetrical (e.g. if the kangaroo is hopping in a straight path and one foot is not in front of the other). We only used symmetrical trials so that the anterior-posterior movement of the CoP would be reliable.

    and did not detectibly associate with hopping speed (see results).

    Yet, the authors interpret their EMA findings as though it systematically related with speed to explain their theory on how metabolic cost is unique in kangaroos vs. other animals.

    Indeed, the relationship between R and speed (and therefore EMA and speed) was not significant. However, the significant change in ankle height with speed, combined with no systematic change in COP at midstance, demonstrates that R would get longer at faster speeds. If we consider the nonsignificant relationship between R and speed to indicate that there is no change in R, then these two results conflict. We could not find a flaw in our methods, so instead concluded that the nonsignificant relationship between R and speed may be due to a small change in R being undetectable in our data. Taking both results into account, we think it is more likely that there is a non-detectable change in R, rather than no change in R with speed, but we presented both results for transparency.

    These speed vs. biomechanics relationships were limited by comparisons across different animals hopping at different speeds and could have been strengthened using repeated measures design.

    There is significant variation in speed within individuals, not just between individuals. The preferred speed of kangaroos is 2-4.5 m/s, but most individuals show a wide range within this. Eight of our 16 kangaroos had a maximum speed that was between 1-2m/s faster than their slowest trial. Repeated measures of these eight individuals comprises 78 out of the 100 trials.

    It would be ideal to collect data across the full range of speeds for all individuals, but it is not feasible in this type of experimental setting. Interference such as chasing is dangerous to kangaroos as they are prone to strong adverse reactions to stress.

    There are also multiple inconsistencies between the authors' theory on how mechanics affect energetics and the cited literature, which leaves me somewhat confused and wanting more clarification and information on how mechanics and energetics relate.

    We will ensure that this is clearer in the revised manuscript.

    My apologies for the less-than-favorable review, I think that this is a neat biomechanics study - but am unsure if it adds much to the literature on the topic of kangaroo hopping energetics in its current form.

    Reviewer #3 (Public Review):

    Summary:

    The goal of this study is to understand how, unlike other mammals, kangaroos are able to increase hopping speed without a concomitant increase in metabolic cost. They use a biomechancial analysis of kangaroo hopping data across a range of speeds to investigate how posture, effective mechanical advantage, and tendon stress vary with speed and mass. The main finding is that a change in posture leads to increasing effective mechanical advantage with speed, which ultimately increases tendon elastic energy storage and returns via greater tendon strain. Thus kangaroos may be able to conserve energy with increasing speed by flexing more, which increases tendon strain.

    Strengths:

    The approach and effort invested into collecting this valuable dataset of kangaroo locomotion is impressive. The dataset alone is a valuable contribution.

    Thank you!

    Weaknesses:

    Despite these strengths, I have concerns regarding the strength of the results and the overall clarity of the paper and methods used (which likely influences how convincingly the main results come across).

    (1) The paper seems to hinge on the finding that EMA decreases with increasing speed and that this contributes significantly to greater tendon strain estimated with increasing speed. It is very difficult to be convinced by this result for a number of reasons:

    • It appears that kangaroos hopped at their preferred speed. Thus the variability observed is across individuals not within. Is this large enough of a range (either within or across subjects) to make conclusions about the effect of speed, without results being susceptible to differences between subjects?

    Apologies, this was not clear in the manuscript. Kangaroos hopping at their preferred speed means we did not chase or startle them into high speeds to comply with ethics and enclosure limitations. Thus we did not record a wide range of speed within the bounds of what kangaroos are capable of (up to 12 m/s), but for the range we did measure (~2-4.5 m/s), there is variation hopping speed within each individual kangaroo. Out of 16 individuals, eight individuals had a difference of 1-2m/s between their slowest and fastest trials, and these kangaroos accounted for 78 out of 100 trials. Of the remainder, six individuals had three for fewer trials each, and two individual had highly repeatable speeds (3 out of 4, and 6 out of 7 trials were within 0.5 m/s). We will ensure this is clear in the revised manuscript.

    In the literature cited, what was the range of speeds measured, and was it within or between subjects?

    For other literature, to our knowledge the highest speed measured is ~9.5m/s (see supplementary Fig1b) and there were multiple measures for several individuals (see methods Kram & Dawson 1998).

    • Assuming that there is a compelling relationship between EMA and velocity, how reasonable is it to extrapolate to the conclusion that this increases tendon strain and ultimately saves metabolic cost?

    They correlate EMA with tendon strain, but this would still not suggest a causal relationship (incidentally the p-value for the correlation is not reported).

    We will add supporting literature on the relationship between metabolic cost and tendon stress (or strain), to elaborate on why the correlation between EMA and stress is important.

    Tendon strain could be increasing with ground reaction force, independent of EMA.

    Even if there is a correlation between strain and EMA, is it not a mathematical necessity in their model that all else being equal, tendon stress will increase as ema decreases? I may be missing something, but nonetheless, it would be helpful for the authors to clarify the strength of the evidence supporting their conclusions.

    Yes, GRF also contributes to the increase in tendon stress in the mechanism we propose. We have illustrated this in Fig 6, however we will make this clearer in the revised discussion.

    • The statistical approach is not well-described. It is not clear what the form of the statistical model used was and whether the analysis treated each trial individually or grouped trials by the kangaroo. There is also no mention of how many trials per kangaroo, or the range of speeds (or masses) tested.

    The methods include the statistical model with the variables that we used, as well as the kangaroo masses (13.7 to 26.6 kg, mean: 20.9 ± 3.4 kg). We will move the range of speeds from the supplementary material to the results or figure captions. We will add information on the number of trials per kangaroo to the methods.

    We did not group the data e.g. by using an average speed per individual for all their trials, or by comparing fast to slow groups (this was for display purposes in our figures, which we will make clearer in the methods).

    Related to this, there is no mention of how different speeds were obtained. It seems that kangaroos hopped at a self-selected pace, thus it appears that not much variation was observed. I appreciate the difficulty of conducting these experiments in a controlled manner, but this doesn't exempt the authors from providing the details of their approach.

    • Some figures (Figure 2 for example) present means for one of three speeds, yet the speeds are not reported (except in the legend) nor how these bins were determined, nor how many trials or kangaroos fit in each bin. A similar comment applies to the mass categories. It would be more convincing if the authors plotted the main metrics vs. speed to illustrate the significant trends they are reporting.

    Thank you for this comment. The bins are used only for display purposes and not within the analysis. In the revised manuscript, we will ensure this is clear.

    (2) The significance of the effects of mass is not clear. The introduction and abstract suggest that the paper is focused on the effect of speed, yet the effects of mass are reported throughout as well, without a clear understanding of the significance. This weakness is further exaggerated by the fact that the details of the subject masses are not reported.

    Indeed, the primary aim of our study was to explore the influence of speed, given the uncoupling of energy from hopping speed in kangaroos. We included mass to ensure that the effects of speed were not driven by body mass (i.e.: that larger kangaroos hopped faster).

    (3) The paper needs to be significantly re-written to better incorporate the methods into the results section. Since the results come before the methods, some of the methods must necessarily be described such that the study can be understood at some level without turning to the dedicated methods section. As written, it is very difficult to understand the basis of the approach, analysis, and metrics without turning to the methods.

    We agree, and in the revised manuscript will incorporate some of the methodological details within the results.

    Author response image 1.

  4. eLife

    eLife assessment

    This valuable biomechanical analysis of kangaroo kinematics and kinetics across a range of hopping speeds and masses is a step towards understanding a long-standing problem in locomotion biomechanics: the mechanism for how, unlike other mammals, kangaroos are able to increase hopping speed without a concomitant increase in metabolic cost. Based on their suggestion that kangaroo posture changes with speed increase tendon stress/strain and hence elastic energy storage/return, the authors imply (but do not show quantitatively or qualitatively) that the greater tendon elastic energy storage/return counteracts the increased cost of generating muscular force at faster speeds and allows for the invariance in metabolic cost. The methods are impressive, but there is currently only limited evidence for increased tendon stress/strain at faster speeds, and the support for any conclusion metabolic energy expenditure is inadequate.

  5. eLife

    Reviewer #1 (Public Review):

    Summary:

    The study explored the biomechanics of kangaroo hopping across both speed and animal size to try and explain the unique and remarkable energetics of kangaroo locomotion.

    Strengths:

    The study brings kangaroo locomotion biomechanics into the 21st century. It is a remarkably difficult project to accomplish. There is excellent attention to detail, supported by clear writing and figures.

    Weaknesses:

    The authors oversell their findings, but the mystery still persists. The manuscript lacks a big-picture summary with pointers to how one might resolve the big question.

    General Comments

    This is a very impressive tour de force by an all-star collaborative team of researchers. The study represents a tremendous leap forward (pun intended) in terms of our understanding of kangaroo locomotion. Some might wonder why such an unusual species is of much interest. But, in my opinion, the classic study by Dawson and Taylor in 1973 of kangaroos launched the modern era of running biomechanics/energetics and applies to varying degrees to all animals that use bouncing gaits (running, trotting, galloping and of course hopping). The puzzling metabolic energetics findings of Dawson & Taylor (little if any increase in metabolic power despite increasing forward speed) remain a giant unsolved problem in comparative locomotor biomechanics and energetics. It is our "dark matter problem".

    This study is certainly a hop towards solving the problem. But, the title of the paper overpromises and the authors present little attempt to provide an overview of the remaining big issues. The study clearly shows that the ankle and to a lesser extent the mtp joint are where the action is. They clearly show in great detail by how much and by what means the ankle joint tendons experience increased stress at faster forward speeds. Since these were zoo animals, direct measures were not feasible, but the conclusion that the tendons are storing and returning more elastic energy per hop at faster speeds is solid. The conclusion that net muscle work per hop changes little from slow to fast forward speeds is also solid. Doing less muscle work can only be good if one is trying to minimize metabolic energy consumption. However, to achieve greater tendon stresses, there must be greater muscle forces. Unless one is willing to reject the premise of the cost of generating force hypothesis, that is an important issue to confront. Further, the present data support the Kram & Dawson finding of decreased contact times at faster forward speeds. Kram & Taylor and subsequent applications of (and challenges to) their approach supports the idea that shorter contact times (tc) require recruiting more expensive muscle fibers and hence greater metabolic costs. Therefore, I think that it is incumbent on the present authors to clarify that this study has still not tied up the metabolic energetics across speed problems and placed a bow atop the package. Fortunately, I am confident that the impressive collective brain power that comprises this author list can craft a paragraph or two that summarizes these ideas and points out how the group is now uniquely and enviably poised to explore the problem more using a dynamic SIMM model that incorporates muscle energetics (perhaps ala' Umberger et al.). Or perhaps they have other ideas about how they can really solve the problem.

    I have a few issues with the other half of this study (i.e. animal size effects). I would enjoy reading a new paragraph by these authors in the Discussion that considers the evolutionary origins and implications of such small safety factors. Surely, it would need to be speculative, but that's OK.

  6. eLife

    Reviewer #2 (Public Review):

    Summary

    This is a fascinating topic that has intrigued scientists for decades. I applaud the authors for trying to tackle this enigma. In this manuscript, the authors primarily measured hopping biomechanics data from kangaroos and performed inverse dynamics. While these biomechanical analyses were thorough and impressively incorporated collected anatomical data and an Opensim model, I'm afraid that they did not satisfactorily address how kangaroos can hop faster and not consume more metabolic energy, unique from other animals. Noticeably, the authors did not collect metabolic data nor did they model metabolic rates using their modelling framework. Instead, they performed a somewhat traditional inverse dynamics analysis from multiple animals hopping at a self-selected speed. Within these analyses, the authors largely focused on ankle EMA, discussing its potential importance (because it affects tendon stress, which affects tendon strain energy, which affects muscle mechanics) on the metabolic cost of hopping. However, EMA was roughly estimated (CoP was fixed to the foot, not measured) and did not detectibly associate with hopping speed (see results). Yet, the authors interpret their EMA findings as though it systematically related with speed to explain their theory on how metabolic cost is unique in kangaroos vs. other animals. These speed vs. biomechanics relationships were limited by comparisons across different animals hopping at different speeds and could have been strengthened using repeated measures design. There are also multiple inconsistencies between the authors' theory on how mechanics affect energetics and the cited literature, which leaves me somewhat confused and wanting more clarification and information on how mechanics and energetics relate. My apologies for the less-than-favorable review, I think that this is a neat biomechanics study - but am unsure if it adds much to the literature on the topic of kangaroo hopping energetics in its current form.

  7. eLife

    Reviewer #3 (Public Review):

    Summary:

    The goal of this study is to understand how, unlike other mammals, kangaroos are able to increase hopping speed without a concomitant increase in metabolic cost. They use a biomechancial analysis of kangaroo hopping data across a range of speeds to investigate how posture, effective mechanical advantage, and tendon stress vary with speed and mass. The main finding is that a change in posture leads to increasing effective mechanical advantage with speed, which ultimately increases tendon elastic energy storage and returns via greater tendon strain. Thus kangaroos may be able to conserve energy with increasing speed by flexing more, which increases tendon strain.

    Strengths:

    The approach and effort invested into collecting this valuable dataset of kangaroo locomotion is impressive. The dataset alone is a valuable contribution.

    Weaknesses:

    Despite these strengths, I have concerns regarding the strength of the results and the overall clarity of the paper and methods used (which likely influences how convincingly the main results come across).

    (1) The paper seems to hinge on the finding that EMA decreases with increasing speed and that this contributes significantly to greater tendon strain estimated with increasing speed. It is very difficult to be convinced by this result for a number of reasons:
    • It appears that kangaroos hopped at their preferred speed. Thus the variability observed is across individuals not within. Is this large enough of a range (either within or across subjects) to make conclusions about the effect of speed, without results being susceptible to differences between subjects? In the literature cited, what was the range of speeds measured, and was it within or between subjects?
    • Assuming that there is a compelling relationship between EMA and velocity, how reasonable is it to extrapolate to the conclusion that this increases tendon strain and ultimately saves metabolic cost? They correlate EMA with tendon strain, but this would still not suggest a causal relationship (incidentally the p-value for the correlation is not reported). Tendon strain could be increasing with ground reaction force, independent of EMA. Even if there is a correlation between strain and EMA, is it not a mathematical necessity in their model that all else being equal, tendon stress will increase as ema decreases? I may be missing something, but nonetheless, it would be helpful for the authors to clarify the strength of the evidence supporting their conclusions.
    • The statistical approach is not well-described. It is not clear what the form of the statistical model used was and whether the analysis treated each trial individually or grouped trials by the kangaroo. There is also no mention of how many trials per kangaroo, or the range of speeds (or masses) tested. Related to this, there is no mention of how different speeds were obtained. It seems that kangaroos hopped at a self-selected pace, thus it appears that not much variation was observed. I appreciate the difficulty of conducting these experiments in a controlled manner, but this doesn't exempt the authors from providing the details of their approach.
    • Some figures (Figure 2 for example) present means for one of three speeds, yet the speeds are not reported (except in the legend) nor how these bins were determined, nor how many trials or kangaroos fit in each bin. A similar comment applies to the mass categories. It would be more convincing if the authors plotted the main metrics vs. speed to illustrate the significant trends they are reporting.

    (2) The significance of the effects of mass is not clear. The introduction and abstract suggest that the paper is focused on the effect of speed, yet the effects of mass are reported throughout as well, without a clear understanding of the significance. This weakness is further exaggerated by the fact that the details of the subject masses are not reported.

    (3) The paper needs to be significantly re-written to better incorporate the methods into the results section. Since the results come before the methods, some of the methods must necessarily be described such that the study can be understood at some level without turning to the dedicated methods section. As written, it is very difficult to understand the basis of the approach, analysis, and metrics without turning to the methods.

  8. preLights

    Excerpt

    Should we all be hopping like a kangaroo? @LivEvoBiomech , @SamRRCross and @james_charles90 review this exciting preprint: Unlocking the secrets of kangaroo locomotor energetics.

  9. Version published to 10.1101/2024.02.05.578950v1 on bioRxiv