4 ms·
Our gait isn't the reason humans can travel long-distance. It's that humans have more effective cooling and don't overheat in high temperatures. In cold climat
by kayodelycaon 5y ago
Our gait isn't the reason humans can travel long-distance. It's that humans have more effective cooling and don't overheat in high temperatures.
In cold climates, gray wolves have advantage in ultramarathon distances, provided they don't overheat. They can maintain 5~6mph on rough surfaces. Humans maintain 4~5 mph on prepared surfaces. (Wolves are lighter and their four clawed feet have significantly better traction than our two feet.)
Any surprise we domesticated dogs? They can keep up with us. :)
- DoingIsLearning 5y agoSpeed/traction have little to do with energy efficiency. The cooling adaptions we have allows to outperform most animals in long distance _running_ which is how the whole concept of 'persistence hunting' is based on. What I was pointing to is energy-efficiency in _walking_ long distances (we migrated long distances by walking not running). The bi-pedal flat foot heel-strike and roll gait that we have is the most energy efficient gait, the dogs in your example can keep up with us but still spend more energy per mile per kilo walking on four legs. The downside is that it is actually pretty hard to keep your center of mass on top of such a small Base of Support between your feet.
- sandworm101 5y agoDogs have more than four feet. For purposes of traction, they have at least twenty. Each paw has five pads that contact the ground independent of one another. Add in their nails, and they have 36 articulated points of contact. Our toes are no longer load-bearing. Whereas we walk with the bulk of our weight on maybe four pads (heel+ball on each foot) dogs walk on an octopus-like network of structures. They will always have better traction.