Chomp! Tiny Ant Has World's Fastest Jaws - 78 - 145 MPH - ENN

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON — A tiny ant has the fastest jaw in the animal kingdom -- literally quicker than the blink of an eye. The trap-jaw ant's scientific name may be ponderous, Odontomachus bauri, but this hunter can clamp its mandibles shut at between 78 mph and 145 mph, according to a report in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That makes it faster than the mantis shrimp, former record holder for fastest strike, according to researchers led by Sheila Patek, assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Even better, it can snap those jaws shut with such force that it can propel itself backward out of danger. The team used high-speed videos to record the strike of the ant and calculate its speed. The average time for a strike was 0.13 milliseconds, some 2,300 times faster than the blink of en eye, they reported. And the quick jaw movement, snapped against the ground, can provide retreat, resulting in the ant flipping itself into the air and potentially away from danger.

Seeing them do that was "one of the more hilarious moments in our lab," Patek said in a telephone interview. The ants don't hurt themselves; they just sort of land, roll over and walk away, she said. And sometimes they'll grab onto things on the way down.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11111

[xchrom]

1. lol -- that is so cool.

ants are going to have the last word yet.

[gula]

2. Short but amazing video of them in the middle of the article.

http://tinyurl.com/p6b8y