RVC student blogs about his BBSRC Research Experience Placement
Luke Grinham, one of our BioVeterinary Sciences students, was awarded a BBSRC Research Experience Placement this summer, which he undertook in our Structure and Motion Lab. His project focused on "How do giraffes use long limbs to lengthen their stride?"
Luke explored the following hypotheses as part of this:
- Hypothesis 1: Giraffes exploit their long limbs to increase their speed. This will be addressed by relating walking speed with stride length.
- Hypothesis 2: Giraffes keep their limb joints rigid (minimizing flexion/extension of joints distal to the shoulder/hip, relative to data on other, smaller ungulates) during the stance phase of the walk.
Luke posted a short blog series, providing a detailed analysis of his experiences with this project: https://lukeismoving.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/my-summer-in-the-sml/
