Evolutionary Biomechanics

Life has diversified on Earth in many stunning ways. Understanding how this diversity arose and has been maintained is a common interest for many evolutionary biologists. One approach to studying morphological evolution is the inherently interdisciplinary field of evolutionary biomechanics, investigating how organisms physically operate, combining biology, engineering, and evolution to consider morphology in an engineering and evolutionary context. Biomechanical research often focuses on the force, torque, stress, thrust, drag, or pressure generated by or within organisms (i.e., how birds fly or how trees pump fluids against gravity). Evolutionary biomechanics, or if considering multiple species, comparative biomechanics, consider biomechanical concepts in an evolutionary context, asking how morphological and performance-related traits and abilities may have evolved. Evolutionary biomechanics combines aspects of anatomy, engineering, evolution, and even ecology. Approaches include manipulative experiments, simulations/modeling, and correlated observations to connect organisms’ morphology and performance to some aspect of evolution, often connecting biomechanical results with organisms’ environments to investigate the adaptive evolution or origin of a trait. Specific analyses may include ancestorial state reconstructions, modeling of trait evolution, geometric morphometric analyses, finite element analyses, particle image velocimetry, computational fluid dynamics, gait analyses, inverse dynamics, and forward dynamics analyses. Evolutionary biomechanical studies can focus on extant and extinct organisms (including humans), relying on live animals, preserved specimens, and fossils for morphological information. As a result, evolutionary biomechanical studies are, by definition, interdisciplinary and can be highly variable, asking a wide range of questions, focusing on many different taxa, and using a variety of approaches. As a result, the publications mentioned in this article can include aspects of other headings. Overlapping areas of research would include “functional morphology, “functional ecology,” and “ecological morphology.” In addition, concepts in evolutionary biomechanics also overlap with other Oxford Bibliographies articles, including the Oxford Bibliographies in Ecology article "Functional Morphology of Animals" and multiple human-centered design articles. Biomechanical constraints are a form of evolutionary constraint that limit an organisms’ morphology or performance due to physical principles. For more information on constrains, see the Oxford Bibliographies in Evolutionary Biology article “Evolutionary Constraints". Biomechanics is also featured as a heading in the Oxford Bibliographies in Evolutionary Biology article "Tetrapod Evolution" providing information on the mechanics of tetrapod movement.