Long shanks make jumping easier in mice

Long shanks make jumping easier in miceWhether an animal is just going about its daily business or escaping from predators, moving can take quite a bit of energy.So, some animals have adopted jumping as a way of making themselves more energy efficient or more difficult to catch.Whatever their reason, animals that frequently jump around have one thing in common: longer leg bones.However, studying jumping animals such as kangaroos and small primates is difficult given their size and scarcity.But, what if you could 'engineer' your own study organism that would be small and easy to work with, but also have longer leg bones than other, similarly sized animals?In 2010, Campbell Rolian's research group at the Unviersity of Calgary, Canada, did just that, selectively breeding mice to have longer tibias.Now, the 'Longshanks' mice have tibias that are 15% longer than those of normal mice.But do these long-limbed mice jump better as well?