If a question is asked about what the fastest land creature is, without fail, you would answer cheetah! In a way, you would be correct but it’s not as simple as that.
The reason this is the case is that measuring speed is relative, and depends on the body lengths covered per second of time. Let’s consider the body lengths covered per second of time by the fastest land creatures:
1. The World’s Fastest Man
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Usain Bolt, who is 1.95 metres and currently has the fastest time in the world actually covers 6 of his body lengths in one second.
2. The World’s Fastest Animal
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An adult cheetah, with a maximum body length of 1.5 metres covers 16 of its body lengths in one second
3. The World’s Fastest Insect
But on a smaller scale, things are a bit different.
For an Australian tiger beetle, with a body length of only 10 millimetres covers 171 of its body length in one second. Yet, it is not the fastest insect.
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This title belongs to the Paratarsotomus macropalpis, a mini-sized mite, it covers 322 of its body length in one second.
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When scaled up, this is comparable to Usain Bolt running at 2,277km/hr, and at this speed will run a 100m dash in a mere 0.16 seconds!
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