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Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis

In bats, the wing membrane is anchored not only to the body and forelimb, but also to the hindlimb. This attachment configuration gives bats the potential to modulate wing shape by moving the hindlimb, such as by joint movement at the hip or knee. Such movements could modulate lift, drag, or the pit...

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Autores principales: Cheney, Jorn A., Ton, Daniel, Konow, Nicolai, Riskin, Daniel K., Breuer, Kenneth S., Swartz, Sharon M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032239/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24858194
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098093
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author Cheney, Jorn A.
Ton, Daniel
Konow, Nicolai
Riskin, Daniel K.
Breuer, Kenneth S.
Swartz, Sharon M.
author_facet Cheney, Jorn A.
Ton, Daniel
Konow, Nicolai
Riskin, Daniel K.
Breuer, Kenneth S.
Swartz, Sharon M.
author_sort Cheney, Jorn A.
collection PubMed
description In bats, the wing membrane is anchored not only to the body and forelimb, but also to the hindlimb. This attachment configuration gives bats the potential to modulate wing shape by moving the hindlimb, such as by joint movement at the hip or knee. Such movements could modulate lift, drag, or the pitching moment. In this study we address: 1) how the ankle translates through space during the wingbeat cycle; 2) whether amplitude of ankle motion is dependent upon flight speed; 3) how tension in the wing membrane pulls the ankle; and 4) whether wing membrane tension is responsible for driving ankle motion. We flew five individuals of the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, Cynopterus brachyotis (Family: Pteropodidae), in a wind tunnel and documented kinematics of the forelimb, hip, ankle, and trailing edge of the wing membrane. Based on kinematic analysis of hindlimb and forelimb movements, we found that: 1) during downstroke, the ankle moved ventrally and during upstroke the ankle moved dorsally; 2) there was considerable variation in amplitude of ankle motion, but amplitude did not correlate significantly with flight speed; 3) during downstroke, tension generated by the wing membrane acted to pull the ankle dorsally, and during upstroke, the wing membrane pulled laterally when taut and dorsally when relatively slack; and 4) wing membrane tension generally opposed dorsoventral ankle motion. We conclude that during forward flight in C. brachyotis, wing membrane tension does not power hindlimb motion; instead, we propose that hindlimb movements arise from muscle activity and/or inertial effects.
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spelling pubmed-40322392014-05-28 Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis Cheney, Jorn A. Ton, Daniel Konow, Nicolai Riskin, Daniel K. Breuer, Kenneth S. Swartz, Sharon M. PLoS One Research Article In bats, the wing membrane is anchored not only to the body and forelimb, but also to the hindlimb. This attachment configuration gives bats the potential to modulate wing shape by moving the hindlimb, such as by joint movement at the hip or knee. Such movements could modulate lift, drag, or the pitching moment. In this study we address: 1) how the ankle translates through space during the wingbeat cycle; 2) whether amplitude of ankle motion is dependent upon flight speed; 3) how tension in the wing membrane pulls the ankle; and 4) whether wing membrane tension is responsible for driving ankle motion. We flew five individuals of the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, Cynopterus brachyotis (Family: Pteropodidae), in a wind tunnel and documented kinematics of the forelimb, hip, ankle, and trailing edge of the wing membrane. Based on kinematic analysis of hindlimb and forelimb movements, we found that: 1) during downstroke, the ankle moved ventrally and during upstroke the ankle moved dorsally; 2) there was considerable variation in amplitude of ankle motion, but amplitude did not correlate significantly with flight speed; 3) during downstroke, tension generated by the wing membrane acted to pull the ankle dorsally, and during upstroke, the wing membrane pulled laterally when taut and dorsally when relatively slack; and 4) wing membrane tension generally opposed dorsoventral ankle motion. We conclude that during forward flight in C. brachyotis, wing membrane tension does not power hindlimb motion; instead, we propose that hindlimb movements arise from muscle activity and/or inertial effects. Public Library of Science 2014-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4032239/ /pubmed/24858194 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098093 Text en © 2014 Cheney et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Cheney, Jorn A.
Ton, Daniel
Konow, Nicolai
Riskin, Daniel K.
Breuer, Kenneth S.
Swartz, Sharon M.
Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis
title Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis
title_full Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis
title_fullStr Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis
title_full_unstemmed Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis
title_short Hindlimb Motion during Steady Flight of the Lesser Dog-Faced Fruit Bat, Cynopterus brachyotis
title_sort hindlimb motion during steady flight of the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, cynopterus brachyotis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032239/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24858194
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098093
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