title: Architecture and functional ecology of the human gastrocnemius muscle-tendon unit.
abstract: The gastrocnemius muscle-tendon unit (MTU) is central to human locomotion. Structural variation in the human gastrocnemius MTU is predicted to affect the efficiency of locomotion, a concept most often explored in the context of performance activities. For example, stiffness of the Achilles tendon varies among individuals with different histories of competitive running. Such a finding highlights the functional variation of individuals and raises the possibility of similar variation between populations, perhaps in response to specific ecological or environmental demands. Researchers often assume minimal variation in human populations, or that industrialized populations represent the human species as well as any other. Yet rainforest hunter-gatherers, which often express the human pygmy phenotype, contradict such assumptions. Indeed, the human pygmy phenotype is a potential model system for exploring the range of ecomorphological variation in the architecture of human hindlimb muscles, a concept we review here.
authors.affiliation: Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.|William H. Neukom Institute for Computational Science, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
authors.forename: Erin E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1659-2990
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
authors.forename: Nathaniel J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Dominy
mesh_terms: D000125:Achilles Tendon / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010641:Phenotype; D013710:Tendons / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
keywords: bipedalism; ecomorphology; human pygmy phenotype; skeletal muscle architecture; tendocalcaneus