A tree creeper working up the trunk. I selected this part for the vigorous head shake at ~30.0. Different lens this time: Samyang 135mm f2.0 - rather short, no autofocus, no stabilization (but IBIS). Filmed at 1080p 240fps / 8x highspeed mode. No audio.

My talk from the SICB 2021 virtual annual meeting (January 2021). Abstract: Terrestrial locomotion necessarily involves a stance phase (to hold the weight) and a swing phase (to advance the stance positions). Of those, the latter is sometimes supposed to be partially passive, i.e. negligible in terms of energy expenditure. For example, the swing phase has been described as "ballistic" (cf. Mochon and McMahon, 1980), which implies that the limb is "shot off" at given conditions, then passively moves, prior to impact. However, such sophisticated locomotor patterns require precise coordination to be energy efficient. There is evidence that young individuals fail to coordinate efficient swings. We present data from locomoting piglets (age 1-5 days) to measure how energy efficient their swing actually is. Using recordings from biplanar x-ray, we are able to quantify inverse dynamic balances and energetics at the joint level in high detail. Our data offers insights into a crucial developmental phase of these animals, showing that "swinging it right" takes some practice.

The daily dose of local European slowmo bird action. Or, in the case of the green woodpecker, less action (the spotted one spotted me) but not less beauty. Filmed at 1080p 240fps / 8x highspeed mode. No audio. [0:00] European robin [0:40] common magpie [2:16] European green woodpecker

This talk covers some of my explorative attempts to approximate the density distribution of biological samples from micro-CT data. It was a practice talk but closely resembling the real thing. Details here: http://mielke-bio.info/falk/ct_density further info about the conference: http://mielke-bio.info/falk/seb