Strain Analysis as a Tool for Functional Morphology
American Zoology (1991) 31: 655-669
Sharon M. Swartz

Strain gauge analysis can provide tremendous benefits to functional morphologists by accurately assessing the performance of a particular hard tissue structure in the mechanical loading environments in which it functions. This method replaces estimated calculations of skeletal stresses or strains with empirical measurements, and thus allows explicit testing of predictions derived from theoretical mechanical analyses or models. This direct measurement is particularly useful and important when the assumptions of mechanical models are violated in the biological world, such as when the geometry of the element of interest is complex and/or when the loads applied to a structure are either poorly known or dynamically changing. In many, perhaps most, systems of interest to functional morphologists, the assumptions of simple shape and well-defined loading necessary for most theoretical analyses are untenable; in these situations, strain gauge analysis can provide considerable crucial information not attainable any other way. Although there are important limitations to the use of this approach, it can be applied to a variety of kinds of functional analyses and may supply information about skeletal performance that can contribute to meaningful functional interpretations of morphological design.