C. Richard Taylor; Expert in Animal Locomotion

C. Richard Taylor, 56, an expert in animal locomotion who first won international recognition with a Nova article titled “Why Kangaroos Jump.” A native of Phoenix who grew up in Los Angeles and received his bachelor’s degree from Occidental College, Taylor earned his doctorate in zoology from Harvard University and spent five years in postdoctoral field studies in Kenya. As a professor of biology at Harvard, he also directed the school’s Concord Field Station for 25 years. Taylor persuaded any number of animals--kangaroos, ostriches, Alaskan sled dogs, African antelopes--to hop on treadmills to provide him with scientific data about speed and strength in relation to muscle size and the food and water consumed. He voiced some frustration with the lack of cooperation from the common house cat, and reluctantly conceded that an African water buffalo was too heavy for the treadmill. Taylor, who worked with scholars in Africa and Switzerland as well as at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, wrote more than 100 scientific articles on the movement of animals. Last Sunday in Concord, Mass., of a heart attack.