Melody Young

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · January 2025 Powerful digital grasping is essential for primates navigating arboreal environments and is often regarded as a defining characteristic of the order. However, in vivo data on primate grip strength are limited. In this study, we collected grasping da ... Full text Cite

A coati conundrum: how variation in levels of arboreality influences gait mechanics among three musteloid species.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · October 2024 The gait characteristics associated with arboreal locomotion have been frequently discussed in the context of primate evolution, wherein they present as a trio of distinctive features: a diagonal-sequence, diagonal-couplet gait pattern; a protracted arm at ... Full text Cite

Mechanical Constraints during Vertical Climbing Reveals Limited Deviation from Theoretical Minima.

Journal Article Integrative and comparative biology · July 2024 Center of mass (COM) mechanics, often used as an energetic proxy during locomotion, has primarily focused on level movement and hardly explores climbing scenarios. This study examines three-dimensional COM movements across five phylogenetically distinct sp ... Full text Cite

Comparative kinetics of humans and non-human primates during vertical climbing.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · April 2024 Climbing represents a critical behavior in the context of primate evolution. However, anatomically modern human populations are considered ill-suited for climbing. This adaptation can be attributed to the evolution of striding bipedalism, redirecting anato ... Full text Cite

Center of mass position does not drive energetic costs during climbing.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · April 2024 Climbing animals theoretically should optimize the energetic costs of vertical climbing while also maintaining stability. Many modifications to climbing behaviors have been proposed as methods of satisfying these criteria, focusing on controlling the cente ... Full text Cite

Beakiation: how a novel parrot gait expands the locomotor repertoire of living birds.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · January 2024 Occupation of arboreal habitats poses myriad locomotor challenges, driving both anatomical and behavioural innovations across various tetrapod lineages. Here, we report and biomechanically assess a novel, beak-driven locomotor mode-'beakiation'-by which pa ... Full text Cite

The dual function of prokinesis in the feeding and locomotor systems of parrots.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · December 2023 Prokinesis, a mode of avian cranial kinesis involving motion between the neurocranium and upper beak, has long been investigated in biomechanical analyses of avian feeding and drinking. However, the modern avian beak is also used for non-feeding functions. ... Full text Cite

A functional framework for interpreting phalangeal form.

Journal Article Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · August 2023 Across tetrapods, the proportional lengths of the manual and pedal phalanges are highly constrained, following a generalized blueprint of shortening in a proximodistal gradient. Despite this, several lineages of both mammals (e.g. sloths, bats and colugos) ... Full text Cite

Locomotor characteristics of the ground-walking chameleon Brookesia superciliaris.

Journal Article Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · July 2023 Understanding the locomotor characteristics of early diverging ground-walking chameleons (members of the genera Brookesia, Rhampholeon, Palleon, and Rieppeleon) can help to explain how their unique morphology is adapted to fit their environment and mode of ... Full text Cite

Patterns and Factors Influencing Parrot (Order: Psittaciformes) Success in Establishing Thriving Naturalized Populations within the Contiguous United States.

Journal Article Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · June 2023 Parrots (Order: Psittaciformes) represent one of the most striking and ecomorphologically diverse avian clades, spanning more than two orders of magnitude in body size with populations occupying six continents. The worldwide diaspora of parrots is largely ... Full text Cite

Three toes and three modes: Dynamics of terrestrial, suspensory, and vertical locomotion in brown-throated three-toed sloths (Bradypodidae, Xenarthra).

Journal Article Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · May 2023 Living sloths exhibit numerous anatomical specializations towards inverted quadrupedalism, however, previous studies have noted a more varied locomotor repertoire than previously anticipated. In this study, we present spatiotemporal gait characteristics an ... Full text Cite

Grip it good: in vivo grip force across substrate diameters in the brown-throated three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus)

Journal Article Journal of Zoology · April 1, 2023 Sloths are among the most specialized arboreal species and have evolved a suite of anatomical features that support suspensory behaviors. While sloths generally show a reduction in skeletal muscle mass, the digital flexor musculature (i.e., the muscles ass ... Full text Cite

Dynamics of horizontal walking and vertical climbing in the Australian green tree frog (Ranoidea caerulea).

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · April 2023 Despite the high mechanical demands associated with climbing, the ability to ascend vertically has evolved independently in most major animal lineages. However, little is known about the kinetics, mechanical energy profiles or spatiotemporal gait character ... Full text Cite

Pump the brakes! The hindlimbs of three-toed sloths decelerate and support suspensory locomotion.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · April 2023 Modern tree sloths are one of few mammalian taxa for which quadrupedal suspension is obligatory. Sloth limb musculature is specialized for slow velocity, large force contractions that stabilize their body below branches and conserve energy during locomotio ... Full text Cite

How Pendular Is Human Brachiation? When Form Does Not Follow Function.

Journal Article Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · April 2023 Brachiation is a form of suspensory locomotion observed only in Primates. The non-human hominoids (e.g., gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas) are considered specialized brachiators, yet peculiar among the living apes are anatomically modern huma ... Full text Cite

In vivo bite force in lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis, Psittaciformes) and their relative biting performance among birds

Journal Article Journal of Zoology · December 1, 2022 Bite force represents a critical measure of an animal's feeding capabilities and has been analyzed in the context of ecology and body size in numerous vertebrate lineages. Among birds, bite force potential has been comprehensively quantified in finches; ho ... Full text Cite

The influence of substrate size upon pulling and gripping forces in parrots (Psittaciformes: Agapornis roseicollis).

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · October 2022 The ability to securely grasp substrates of variable diameter is critical to arboreal animals. Arboreal specialists have emerged across several vertebrate lineages - including mammals, lizards and amphibians - and several attempts have been made to quantif ... Full text Cite

Got rhythm? Rhythmicity differences reflect different optimality criteria in feeding and locomotor systems.

Journal Article Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · September 2022 Evolutionary analyses of joint kinematics and muscle mechanics suggest that, during cyclic behaviors, tetrapod feeding systems are optimized for precise application of forces over small displacements during chewing, whereas locomotor systems are more optim ... Full text Cite

Positional Behavior of Introduced Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) in an Urban Landscape.

Journal Article Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · September 2022 Positional behaviors have been broadly quantified across the Order Primates, and in several other mammalian lineages, to contextualize adaptations to, and evolution within, an arboreal environment. Outside of Mammalia, however, such data are yet to be repo ... Full text Cite

Testing mechanisms for weight support distribution during inverted quadrupedalism in primates.

Journal Article Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · August 2022 A key characteristic of primate above-branch arboreal locomotion is hindlimb-biased weight support, subverting the typical mammalian condition in which the majority of the body weight is supported by the forelimb. This shift is thought to reflect an adapta ... Full text Cite

The northern treeshrew (Scandentia: Tupaiidae: Tupaia belangeri) in the context of primate locomotor evolution: A comprehensive analysis of gait, positional, and grasping behavior.

Journal Article Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · July 2022 The locomotor behaviors of treeshrews are often reported as scurrying "squirrel-like" movements. As such, treeshrews have received little attention beyond passing remarks in regard to primate locomotor evolution. However, scandentians vary considerably in ... Full text Cite

Patterns of single limb forces during terrestrial and arboreal locomotion in rosy-faced lovebirds (Psittaciformes: Agapornis roseicollis).

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · July 2022 The biomechanical demands of arboreal locomotion are generally thought to necessitate specialized kinetic and kinematic gait characteristics. While such data have been widely collected across arboreal quadrupeds, no study has yet explored how arboreal subs ... Full text Cite

Overcoming a 'forbidden phenotype': the parrot's head supports, propels and powers tripedal locomotion.

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · May 2022 No vertebrate, living or extinct, is known to have possessed an odd number of limbs. Despite this 'forbidden phenotype', gaits that use odd numbers of limbs (e.g. tripedalism or pentapedalism) have evolved in both avian and mammalian lineages. Tripedal loc ... Full text Cite

ALT Positivity in Human Cancers: Prevalence and Clinical Insights.

Journal Article Cancers · May 2021 Many exciting advances in cancer-related telomere biology have been made in the past decade. Of these recent advances, great progress has also been made with respect to the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) pathway. Along with a better understandi ... Full text Cite

The Effects of Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations of BARD1 on the Development of Non-Breast and Non-Gynecological Cancers.

Journal Article Genes · July 2020 Breast Cancer 1 (BRCA1) gene is a well-characterized tumor suppressor gene, mutations of which are primarily found in women with breast and ovarian cancers. BRCA1-associated RING domain 1 (BARD1) gene has also been identified as an important ... Full text Cite