(784.4) Estimates of Resolution, Sensitivity, and Parallax Are Insufficient Parameters to Model the Visual Contributions to Animal Locomotor Performance

Poster Board Number: C85
Introduction: AAA has separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – 10:15 am – 11:15 am
Even poster #s – 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Christopher Heesy (Midwestern University)

Many animals rely on visual information to navigate natural environments. Comparative studies often cite visual resolution (acuity) and depth perception, either individually or in combination, as key traits required by running, gliding, flying and arboreal leaping animals to navigate environments without colliding into obstructions or misjudging properties of substrates. However, broad comparative analyses of the visual components to locomotor performance rarely include the limits of the resolution of distance or speed. Here, I analyze the relationship between visual resolution, sensitivity, and visual field geometry and locomotor performance. I model the limitations on depth, distance, size and orientation information available to animals using comparative visual and morphometric data from invertebrates and vertebrates. I then compare modeled estimates with data on mean and maximum speed as well as arboreal leaping and gliding distances. Morphometric results do not support the suggestion that visual parallax (a measure of depth information) covaries with locomotor type. Additionally, comparisons of visual resolution estimates at distance and velocities known for taxa within the dataset suggest that many animals cross discontinuous substrates and at speeds beyond the limits suggested by simple comparative measures of visual capabilities.