Elephants. They’re the SUVs of the animal kingdom. They’re big and rugged, and can carry lots of cargo. And now a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests they come equipped with the quadruped version of all-wheel drive.
When it comes to locomotion, elephants are not exactly fleet of foot. And they seem to hold their legs straighter than other animals do, at least when they walk. So scientists [John R. Hutchinson et al] set out to examine more closely how elephant limbs mechanically move all that mass around.
Six Asian elephants walked or ran over a sidewalk equipped with pressure sensors, as the scientists used high-speed infrared video cameras to monitor their
