Talk:Vertical clinging and leaping

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Vertical Clinging and Leaping Bibliography Boyer, Doug M., Gabriel S. Yapuncich, Stephen G.b. Chester, Jonathan I. Bloch, and Marc Godinot. "Hands of Early Primates." American Journal of Physical Anthropology152 (2013): 33-78. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22392.

Crompton, Robin Huw, Mary L. Blanchard, Sam Coward, R. Mcneill Alexander, and Susannah K. Thorpe. "Vertical Clinging and Leaping Revisited: Locomotion and Habitat Use in the Western Tarsier, Tarsius Bancanus Explored Via Loglinear Modeling." International Journal of Primatology31, no. 6 (2010): 958-79. doi:10.1007/s10764-010-9420-8.

Demes, B., W.l. Jungers, J.g. Fleagle, R.e. Wunderlich, B.g. Richmond, and P. Lemelin. "Body Size and Leaping Kinematics in Malagasy Vertical Clingers and Leapers." Journal of Human Evolution31, no. 4 (1996): 367-88. doi:10.1006/jhev.1996.0066.

Doran, Diane M. "Comparative Locomotor Behavior of Chimpanzees and Bonobos: The Influence of Morphology on Locomotion." American Journal of Physical Anthropology91, no. 1 (1993): 83-98. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330910106.

Gebo, Daniel L. "Locomotor Diversity in Prosimian Primates." American Journal of Primatology13, no. 3 (1987): 271-81. doi:10.1002/ajp.1350130305.

Hunt, Kevin D. "Body Size Effects on Vertical Climbing among Chimpanzees." International Journal of Primatology15, no. 6 (1994): 855-65. doi:10.1007/bf02736072.

Hunt, Kevin D., John G. H. Cant, Daniel L. Gebo, Michael D. Rose, Suzanne E. Walker, and Dionisios Youlatos. "Standardized Descriptions of Primate Locomotor and Postural Modes." Primates37, no. 4 (1996): 363-87. doi:10.1007/bf02381373.

Napier, J.r.., and A.c. Walker. "Vertical Clinging And Leaping – A Newly Recognized Category Of Locomotor Behaviour Of Primates." Folia Primatologica6, no. 3-4 (1967): 204-19. doi:10.1159/000155079.

Ni, Xijun, Daniel L. Gebo, Marian Dagosto, Jin Meng, Paul Tafforeau, John J. Flynn, and K. Christopher Beard. "The Oldest Known Primate Skeleton and Early Haplorhine Evolution." Nature498, no. 7452 (2013): 60-64. doi:10.1038/nature12200.

Ryan, Timothy M., and Richard A. Ketcham. "Angular Orientation of Trabecular Bone in the Femoral Head and Its Relationship to Hip Joint Loads in Leaping Primates." Journal of Morphology265, no. 3 (2005): 249-63. doi:10.1002/jmor.10315. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ChesneyWard (talk • contribs) 02:25, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

OUTLINE — Preceding unsigned comment added by ChesneyWard (talk • contribs) 23:47, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Introduction

• Define vertical clinging and leaping (add to/modify the definition that’s already here).
• Add diagrams of VCL
• VCL is mostly used during the primate’s locomotion, and only sometimes during their static (vertical) resting state.
• It can be used to reach food, leaping from branches, and other movements. In tarsiers, VCL is important for predation.
• Distinction between all primates occasionally using VCL and ones that use it as primary form.

This improved introduction will more clearly define vertical clinging and leaping and when and why it is used and the added diagrams will allow the reader to visualize the motions associated with the behavior.

Species that use VCL as their primary form of locomotions

• Tarsius, Indri, Propithecus, Avahi, Lepi­ lemur, Hapalemur simus, Galago, Euoticus1

The specific species sections will give readers examples of species that commonly use vertical clinging and leaping and will overview the behavior for that specific species.

Morphology of Species specialized for VCL

• Climbing and leaping behavior decrease with increasing body size - constraints
• Primates bodies are specialized, not generalized, for life in the trees. This lifestyle requires many constant body adjustments, such as leaping, swinging from the arms, and vertical clinging. Vertical clinging (VCL), tail suspensions or other postures such as foot hanging, which can be more specie oriented are usually used to get food.
• Details on the specializations found in the hips, knees, feet, hands, arms, and tails and how each is specialized to facilitate VCL
• VCL Strepsirrhines ave a unique and derived hindlimb, but other leaping adaptations are shared by both clades of euprimates
• The anatomy of primates is generally associated with their locomotion, not the static resting postures. Examples of this would be long legs for the leaping primates2.

This section will serve the purpose of detailing to readers the body types and morphological characteristics necessary and adaptive for VCL. This will also help them better understand how the behavior is achieved and what the animals that engage in the behavior look like.

Evolutionary History

• Early adaptation of Eocene primates: Earliest locomotion specialization in primates, which makes it pre-adaptive to possibly all or some of the later patterns of primate locomotion. The interesting aspect here is that the VCL seems to be the only known locomotor adaptation in the Eocene primates, which leads us to believe it is one of, if not the earliest locomotor adaptation1.
• Ida-earliest found primate fossil (lived 47 million years ago-middle Eocene epoch).
• Femoral structure, hip joint loads
• Diagonal sequence gait: after one hindlimb makes ground contact, the contralateral (opposite-side) forelimb is the next to touch down.
• Primate hands: long prehensile fingers, low curvature in fingers, proximate phalanges
• Medium body size
• Anatomy of ancestral Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini

Variations in the behavior Types of leaps

• The leaps of these animals can differ by launch angle. The differences between these leaps does not appear to come from differences between species, but the leap launch angles have a wide range, changing from anywhere between 30 and 70 degrees
• Leap takeoff angle for the optimum ballistic trajectory is 45 degrees - angles that deviate are more costly to the animal3
• Choose a large-diameter support to minimize energy loss from the substrate

Types of landings

• Bipedal landing
• Landing on another support
• Choosing a support to land on that will balance musculoskeletal shock and stability.

The purpose of this section will be to describe the different ways in which VCL is accomplished and the various reasons for why the behavior is variable.

Effect of environment/diet on different variations

• Select takeoff supports for long distance leaps so as to minimize energy loss to the takeoff support
• Depending on forest productivity, tarsiers’ home ranges can change. Differences in these home ranges can cause differences in anatomy. Longer legs necessitate greater energy efficiency
• Enhanced visual system in order to have better hand-eye coordination to assess the position of branches

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2018 and 7 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sierrajc, BenAllanStone, ChesneyWard, Keegan OReilly, Annalee261, Juliavillegas. Peer reviewers: Khk17, RAsfour97.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:20, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Gnels.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:20, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Katja's Peer Review

Intro:

• "Few anthropoids have been observed...", suggested rephrase: "Some anthropoids..." (sounds less confusing)
• include link to promsimians
• overall nice intro! clear and succinct, maybe include short part that summarizes a main point from each of the following sections?

Types of Leaps:

• would recommend trying to make it more clear that the types of variations (A, B, C) correspond to the diagrams in the picture to the right (I assume they do?)
• are there any implications to leaping in different ways? what is the point of these different types?

Morphological Specializations:

• I would suggest combining some of these sentences: they're all pretty simple so could be made more complex in this way
• Edit: "They have three main objectives: to achieve a certain height, a certain distance, and land on vertical support" (need colon here because listing things)
• Edit: "Longer hindlimbs therefore allow more time and distance to accelerate for takeoff, and so it is believed that the longer and stronger femurs evolved because they increase the distance over which acceleration occurs." (changed structure of first clause)
• Edit: "Therefore, longer limbs provide more time for deceleration and can prevent injury after landing with high velocity." (deleted comma)
• overall really nice objective and clear writing
• suggestion: add more specific examples on what these morphological specializations look like rather than simply just saying that they differ

Launch Point Considerations:

• Edit: "When an animal is leaping, they are more likely to choose a large branch rather than a small branch as their launch point, as this provides a sturdier base for the jump and reduces the energy expended during takeoff." (added comma, deleted superfluous words)
• Edit: "In fact, tarsiers have been observed to climb to lower heights in order to be able to leap from and land on higher diameter branches" (changed wording to be more concise)
• Edit: "This also puts a limitation on the height of a leap, as the primate must be able to land on a branch that is large enough to stabilize the animal and minimize the energy expended to balancing when landing" (added comma, changed wording at end)
• Recommend restructuring to be more concise or simply cutting out this sentence: "The behaviors within vertical clinging and leaping can vary and one of the more prominent parts of the behavior to change is the launch angle of the leap"
• Confused as to the meaning of this, do you mean within a species the angle ranges from 30-70 but that range is seen among all species? Please clarify: "The differences between the launch angle of leaps does not appear to change between species, however the angles represent a wide range, changing from anywhere between 30 and 70 degrees." (also there is no citation for this info?)
• Edit: "In these latter cases, a trajectory other than 45 degrees would be more beneficial and the vertical leaping animals are capable of adjusting their launch angles to compensate for this' (removed a double "capable")
• I like the content of this section a lot!!

Fossil Evidence:

• Edit: "Thus, VCL seems to be the only known locomotor adaptation in the Eocene primates, which leads us to believe it is one of, if not the earliest, locomotor adaptations" (added comma and "s")
• I would rename the "Ida" subtitle - very unclear what this section will be about until you read
• WOAH this is so cool!!

References:

• Make sure you check format of dates: many of them have errors
• Otherwise all look good!

Other suggestions:

• Consider adding a list of species section: super easy and helpful to know the breadth of this behavior
• Adding pictures of some of these species would be a fun addition as well!

Khk17 (talk) 04:58, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Introduction

→its most commonly seen in these primates, but does it also occur in other groups? just primates? →Great species list but maybe it deserves it own section like Katja mentioned!

Types of Leaps

→do you need both the heading and the subheading? →I think the info you have in the talk page outline would be good, as well as including the information about landing positions.

Morphological Specializations

→you talk about body size playing a role, but maybe add more details about what that role actually is? Like bigger animals can leap farther? just make it clear what you are trying to say in this section. →there is a lot said in this section and a ton of info provided but you might want to make it a little easier to read, throw in some transitions and just bring it all together.

Launch Point Considerations

→Overall I think Katja's suggestions would make this section flow better. →I think this info is really interesting, especially with some grammatical edits!

Fossil Evidence

→Is there a way to reorder this section into more of a timeline? These blocks of texts tell a lot about those specific examples but don't really paint a picture of why those fossils matter. →If you could go with a timeline version, maybe rename this section "evolutionary history" just to provide more context for the behavior. →great job incorporating other pages here!

overall

I think you have a great start here, just add some more general info. You approached it from a scientific angle and have all the citations and references you need. Now you get a chance to make it more accessible to the general public (or kids learning about these cool primates for the first time!). Nice job guys!

Annalee261 (talk) 23:58, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

Julia's Peer Edits

Intro:

• I agree with Katja's rewording suggestion--this will eliminate any potential confusion.
• Adding a separate species list will help to make paragraphs less cluttered and group primates in a more clear manner.
• Overall, great intro! I think you guys gave a good summary of the concept.

Types of Leaps:

• Would it be possible for you to separate the diagram into 3 different photos? This way you can present them as a series representing the anatomy of a leap and place descriptions underneath their corresponding photos.
• Are there any differences in launch/landing for the different variations?
• Are certain species more/less likely to do any given variation?

Morphological Specializations:

• Do you know any specific differences between anatomy of vertical clingers/leapers and other animals? You mentioned various body parts that have enhancements but not exactly what they are.
• In the second paragraph, lead by saying that longer limbs allow for enhanced locomotive abilities. I think this will eliminate confusion and the reader will be able to make connections between the anatomy and physiology more easily.
• I would consider putting the third paragraph in the types of leaps section since it doesn't describe any anatomical features or physiological processes.
• Consider putting information from final paragraph in the first paragraph. This will help to elaborate on specific features that VCL primates rely on for effective locomotion.

Launch Point Considerations:

• I agree with Katja's edits for this! It'll make the section much easier to read and comprehend.
• If you can, try to find a diagram for the angle launch section. With concepts like this, it is really helpful to have a visual aid along with the written description.

Fossil Evidence:

• It's a little bit confusing giving Ida her own subsection--maybe find a way to incorporate her story into the first paragraph so that there's a specific example for the information provided there and her story is also put into context.
• This section was super cool! I never knew any of this information and think it will definitely prompt people to make connections that they otherwise wouldn't.

References:

• Check date values!

Overall:

• Really great job guys! I like that you included images and a wide variety of information. I think that these minor edits will help to improve the cohesiveness of the page and you'll be good to go!

Juliavillegas (talk) 03:35, 8 November 2018 (UTC)Juliavillegas

Richard Asfour - Peer Review

Overall great work guys! The article is very informational, structured in a clear manner that was easy to follow and suitably written for a Wikipedia page. I really enjoyed learning more about the launch point considerations and Ida, so these were fantastic additions to the article. There are a couple of changes here and there but those can be fixed pretty easily.

I think that the article can be improved by developing the introduction section a little bit more. You could try and include some other general information about VCL by expanding on its usage, which could be done by mentioning its benefit in food acquisition, predator avoidance, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RAsfour97 (talk • contribs) 05:46, 8 November 2018 (UTC)