Cassandra Goodmansen

The desert Kangaroo Rat, Dipodomys deserti, is a small mammal that has evolved hopping as its primary source of locomotion. Only a few other groups of mammals have evolved as bipedal hoppers, such as springhares and kangaroos, and although there has been extensive research on the biomechanics of hopping locomotion itself, the role of the tail has not been adequately researched. I assisted in this research by using MATLAB to track tail movements. Quantifying this data we'll further understand the roll of the tail with this type of locomotion in the desert Kangaroo Rat.