Small Mite Is World's Fastest Land Animal, Size-For-Size
Step aside, cheetah Cheetahs are still the world's fastest absolute land animals. But relative to their body size, a small Southern Californian mite has them beat. Joachim Huber via Wikimedia Commons A small mite native to Southern Californian is the world's fastest animal, at least relative to its body size, researchers announced on Sunday (April 28). Known as Paratarsotomus macropalpis, it can travel 322 body lengths in a second. That is one mighty mite. Here is how that speed would translate into human terms, as noted in the International Business Times: If a human could cover 322 body lengths in one second, she would be traveling at 1,300 miles per hour. At that speed, a human runner could circle the Earth in less than 20 hours – or make a round trip from San Francisco...