You may think a cheetah would be hard to beat, but researchers have found that, for its size, a tiny California beetle is actually the fastest animal ever found.
Paratarsotomus macropalpis is no bigger than a sesame seed – however, it was recently recorded running at up to 322 body lengths per second.
The previous record-holder, the Australian tiger beetle, only reached 171 body lengths per second, while a cheetah running at 60 miles per hour attains only reaches 16 body lengths per second.
Extrapolated to the size of a human, the mite’s speed is equivalent to a person running roughly 1300 miles per hour.
The California college student who spent a summer chasing down the remarkable mites says the discovery is exciting not only because it sets a new world record, but also for what it reveals about the physiology of movement and the physical limitations of living structures.
‘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 Samuel Rubin, a junior and physics major at Pitzer College.
