The fastest known movement in the animal kingdom isn't a strike, it's a snap of the jaws

Dracula ants can snap their mandibles together at up to 90 meters per second, more than 5,000 times faster than a human blink, by building up tension like a loaded spring and releasing it all at once instead of contracting muscle in real time. The motion was only confirmed with high-speed cameras in 2018.

— Fredrick J. Larabee, Adrian A. Smith, Andrew V. Suarez, Snap-jaw morphology is specialized for high-speed power amplification in the Dracula ant, Mystrium camillae — Royal Society Open Science, 2018

One credited idea per card. No filler. Swipe the rest in Savvy.

Keep swiping — it's free Works right in your browser. No app store needed.

More Nature

All Nature cards →

Five ideas worth knowing, every week

The week's best cards and a puzzle, credited as always. Free, unsubscribe any time.