It's not often that a mite beats a cheetah at anything, but that's exactly what happened when a paratarsotomus macropalpis mite was recently recorded running at up to speeds of 322 body lengths per second, becoming the new fastest land animal in the world.
The study was conducted by Jonathan Wright, a professor of biology at Pomona College, and his student researcher Samuel Rubin.
"It's so cool to discover something that's faster than anything else, and just to imagine, as a human, going that fast compared to your body length is really amazing," said Rubin, a junior physics major at Pitzer College who helped conduct the research, according to the release.
"But beyond that, looking deeper into the physics of how they accomplish these speeds could help inspire revolutionary new designs for things like robots or biomimetic devices," Rubin said.
The Australian tiger beetle was the previous record holder, topping out at 171 body lengths per second.
A cheetah running at 60 miles per hour achieves just about 16 body lengths per second, according to the release.
The two observed the mite in its natural environment and in the lab by using speed cameras. Wright confirmed that keeping the mite in the camera frame was extremely difficult.
The mite's speed is equivalent to a person running roughly 1300 miles per hour.
"We were looking at the overarching question of whether there is an upper limit to the relative speed or stride frequency that can be achieved," Wright said. "When the values for mites are compared with data from other animals, they indicate that, if there is an upper limit, we haven't found it yet."
The mite is local to Southern California, and is often seen running along sidewalks or rocks.
The duo's findings were presented to those who attended the Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego on April 27.
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