The cheetah is widely believed to be the fastest animal on the planet, but if you take relative size into account then it is well beaten a tiny desert species of mite.
Cheetahs can reach speeds of around 60mph over short distances (Usain Bolt runs the 100m at 27.79 miles per hour for comparison), and a mite the size of a sesame seed will never reach that objective speed. However, if you measure speed as body lengths per second then this is where the Southern Californian Paratarsotomus macropalpis starts to shine.
In comparison with the cheetah’s 16 body lengths per second, the mite manages a massive 322 body lengths over the same period, making it more than twenty times as quick. It is also nearly twice a quick as the previous record holder, the Australian tiger beetle, that clocks in at a mere 171 body lengths per second.
The speed of the mite was measured in both the lab and in the field with high speed video, with the findings presented by researchers in a report today at the Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego, California.
Scientists hope that studying these quick-footed mites will help engineers develop superfast robots in the future.
