Biewener A A
J Exp Biol. 1982 Jun;98:289-301. doi: 10.1242/jeb.98.1.289.
Measurements of the cross-sectional geometry and length of bones from animals of different sizes suggest that peak locomotory stresses might be as much as nine times greater in the limb bones of a 300 kg horse than those of a 0.10 kg chipmunk. To determine if the bones of larger animals are stronger than those of small animals, the bending strength of whole bone specimens from the limbs of small mammals and bipedal birds was measured and compared with published data for large mammalian cortical bone (horses and bovids). No significant difference (P greater than 0.2) was found in the failure stress of bone over a range in size from 0.05-700 kg (233 +/- 53 MN/m2 for small animals compared to 200 +/- 28 MN/m2 for large animals). This finding suggests that either the limb bones of small animals are much stronger than they need to be, or that other aspects of locomotion (e.g. duty factor and limb orientation relative to the direction of the ground force) act to decrease peak locomotory stresses in larger animals.
对不同大小动物骨骼的横截面几何形状和长度进行测量后发现，300千克马的四肢骨骼所承受的最大运动应力可能比0.10千克花栗鼠的四肢骨骼大九倍之多。为了确定大型动物的骨骼是否比小型动物的骨骼更强壮，研究人员对小型哺乳动物和双足鸟类四肢的完整骨骼标本的抗弯强度进行了测量，并与已发表的大型哺乳动物（马和牛科动物）皮质骨的数据进行了比较。在体重范围从0.05 - 700千克的动物中，未发现骨骼的破坏应力有显著差异（P大于0.2）（小型动物为233±53兆牛/平方米，大型动物为200±28兆牛/平方米）。这一发现表明，要么小型动物的四肢骨骼比实际所需强壮得多，要么运动的其他方面（如负荷系数和四肢相对于地面力方向的取向）起到了降低大型动物最大运动应力的作用。
