{"id":257692,"date":"2024-08-29T18:10:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T18:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/29\/backflipping-springtails-are-the-fastest-spinners-known-in-nature\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:11:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:11:40","slug":"backflipping-springtails-are-the-fastest-spinners-known-in-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/29\/backflipping-springtails-are-the-fastest-spinners-known-in-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Backflipping springtails are the fastest spinners known in nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Composite image of a globular springtail jumping<\/p>\n

Adrian Smith<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

High-speed cameras have captured in vivid detail how springtails flip themselves into the air, showing that they spin faster than any animal ever recorded.<\/p>\n

Springtails, a type of arthropod in a group related to insects, are millimetres long and found in most places on Earth.<\/p>\n

True to their name, the animals use a tail-like appendage called a furca, which folds beneath their bodies, to spring off the ground. The furca unfolds in a flash to catapult the creatures into the air, allowing them to evade predators.<\/p>\n

Adrian Smith<\/a> at North Carolina State University sifted through leaf litter in his backyard to collect mottled orange and brown, round-bodied Dicyrtomina minuta<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought them in the lab and filmed them, and I was amazed at what they did,\u201d says Smith.<\/p>\n

Working with Jacob Harrison<\/a> at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Smith captured dozens of springtail vaults using high-speed cameras. To prompt the arthropods to flip, the researchers put them under a bright light and sometimes gave them a prod with a small paintbrush.<\/p>\n

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