Elbow Motion in Walking Alligators

Thao Pham ’21, BiologyMegan Rowlings ’21, BiologyNina Pitre ’22, BiologyLuciana Emmanuelli ’23, BiologyFaculty Mentor: Dr. David Baier, Biology Crocodylia regularly use a “high-walk” during terrestrial locomotion unlike other non-mammals, thus drawing interest from both biomechanical and evolutionary research communities. Here, we employ the highly accurate XROMM (X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology) method to measure joint motion between the three forelimb bones (humerus, ulna, and radius) of alligators performing high-walks on a treadmill. This method literally “re-animates” bone motion by combining bi-planar X-ray video with digital bone models from CT scans in the animation program Maya (Autodesk)