Research
STEUDEL, Karen L.
Contact
Info:
Phone: 263.5079
Email: ksteudel@facstaff.wisc.edu
Office: 358 Birge
Research Interests:
My research focuses on the relationship between locomotor structure
and performance and in applying the results of those studies to
our understanding of the evolution of locomotion in hominins. Assumptions
about the biomechanical consequences of variations in bone structure
are not always supported in direct tests. I have been very involved
in discussions of the role of locomotor energetics in the evolution
of bipedal posture and locomotion. I have shown that the cost of
walking in modern humans is related to limb length, stature, mass
and % fat. Relatively longer limbs result in lower locomotor costs.
The short limbs of Australopithecus would have been very energetically
costly. The fact that the short limbs were retained for at least
a million years suggests that either some alternative selective
pressure was at work or that these hominids did not travel long
distances on the ground. The relatively short limbed Neanderthals
would have had costs of walking approximately 30% larger than the
anatomically modern humans that replaced them. We are finding similar
results in human running. We are looking at kinematic data to try
to understand the basis for the economy of human walking and for
why shorter limbs are so energetically costly.
