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Biomechanics

Damper for bad vibrations

Nature volume 414, pages 855–857 (2001)Cite this article

Some muscle fibres in the legs of horses seem to be evolutionary leftovers with no function. But in fact they may act to damp damaging vibrations generated in the leg as the horse runs.

Horses1 and camels2 have muscles in their legs with tendons more than 600 millimetres long connected to muscle fibres less than 6 millimetres long. Such short muscles can change length only by a few millimetres as the animal moves, and seem unlikely to be of much use to large mammals. The tendons function as passive springs, and it has been assumed that the short muscle fibres are redundant, the remnants of longer fibres that have lost their function over the course of evolution. But Wilson and colleagues argue, on page 895 of this issue3, that these fibres might protect bones and tendons from potentially damaging vibrations.

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  1. School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    R. McNeill Alexander

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  1. R. McNeill Alexander
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Correspondence to R. McNeill Alexander.

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Alexander, R. Damper for bad vibrations. Nature 414, 855–857 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/414855a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/414855a

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