
One of Etienne Marey’s animal mechanism experiments on frogs.

One of Etienne Marey’s animal mechanism experiments on frogs.

In science, animal mechanism refers to the mechanism by which animals move.

Overview
Shown adjacent is a photo of one Etienne Marey’s animal mechanism experiments, a neurologically-deactivated frog, depicted on what’s labeled as “Marey’s myograph”, wherein the muscles are stimulated and their contractions recorded; a primitive experiment aiming to quantify the physics of the operation of the frog muscular work. [1]

Shown below is an 1882 photo of a bird flight, taken with Marey's chronophotographic gun, which he made that year, an instrument was capable of taking 12 consecutive frames a second, in order to study animal mechanism:

Marey, in his Animal Mechanism (1873), also touched on what he called "animal thermodynamics", most of which, however, referring to physiology or heat and work measurements "in" animals, rather than "between" or amid social systems of animals, which is the more complex and robust topic of discussion.

References
1. Marey, Étienne-Jules. (1873). Animal Mechanism: a Treatise on Terrestrial and Aerial Locomotion (La Machine animale. Locomotion terrestre et aérienne) (Marey’s Myograph, pg. 32). D. Appleton and Co.