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Nature 418, 721-722 (15 August 2002) | doi:10.1038/418721a

Open Innovation Challenges

High speed biomechanics: Caught on camera

Rex Dalton1

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By recording animal movements that are too fast for the human eye to follow, high-speed digital video is transforming studies at the interface of biomechanics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology. Rex Dalton reports.

One spring day last year, deep in the lush tropical cloud forest of Ecuador's Maquipucuna Reserve, Kimberly Bostwick positioned herself on the side of a ravine to observe an avian mating show in the upper canopy. Pulling out her new high-speed video camera, she waited for the brightly coloured actors: male club-winged manakins (Machaeropterus deliciosus).