Great Apes

African ape (chimpanzee, bonobo, and gorilla) terrestrial locomotion is often grouped together as knuckle-walking quadrupedalism. But my work comparing the onotgeny of locomotion in chipanzees and gorillas at the North Carolina Zoo has shown differences in the hand, foot and limb posture between the more arboreal chimpanzees and highly terrestrial gorillas.

One current project focuses on locomotor ontogeny in the most arboreal great apes, Sumtran and Bornean orangutans. Another project investigates the role of the heel pad in the effective foot mass and energy exchange during walking in juvenile and adult gorillas. This reasearch is funded by the National Science Foundation (BSC 1517561) and the Leakey Foundation.