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Science 20 December 1974:
Vol. 186. no. 4169, pp. 1112 - 1113
DOI: 10.1126/science.186.4169.1112
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Articles

Scaling Stride Frequency and Gait to Animal Size: Mice to Horses

Norman C. Heglund 1, C. Richard Taylor 1, and Thomas A. McMahon 2

1 Museum of Comparative Zoology and Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 01451
2 Division of Engineering and Applied Physics, Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Biological Laboratories, Harvard University

The stride frequency at which animals of different size change from one gait to another (walk, trot, gallop) changes in a regular manner with body mass. The speed at the transition from trot to gallop can be used as an equivalent speed for comparing animals of different size. This transition point occurs at lower speeds and higher stride frequencies in smaller animals. Plotting stride frequency at the trot-gallop transition point as a function of body mass in logarithmic coordinates yields a straight line.


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