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Australian ant sets fastest animal record

Australian Dracula ants use their mandibles to snap up prey at world record-breaking speeds, United States researchers have found.

An Australian ant known as Dracula ant.

An Australian ant has set a new record for the fastest animal movement, with its jaws. (AAP)

An Australian ant has set a new record for the fastest animal movement, with jaws that snap shut 5000 times quicker than the blink of an eye.

The Dracula ant uses a snapping motion to slide their mandibles across each other, similar to a finger snap.

US scientists used high speed video to record the jaws going from zero to about 320km/h in 0.000015 seconds, making it the fastest known animal movement.

Mystrium camillae are known as Dracula ants because they sometimes feed on the blood of their larvae in a non-harmful way, which has been referred to as "non-destructive parental cannibalism".

But when arthropods are available leaf litter, they use their snap jaws to prey on them.


1 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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