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> World

Meet the fastest animal on earth: The Dracula Ant

The Dracula ant can snap its jaws at an incredible 320kph

Newsroom December 13 09:41

Most of us probably think that the fastest animals in the world is the cheetah. But we would be mistaken, as that title surprisingly goes to the “Dracula ants”.
The Dracula ant can snap its jaws at an incredible 320kph, which is 5,000 times faster than the blink of an eye.
The tiny creature, just a few millimetres in size, has been officially named the fastest moving living animal, beating the cheetah, whose record running speed is 60mph (96kph).
Dracula ants, found in Africa, Australia and south-east Asia, use their jaws like a catapult, pushing them together to build up tension before they fly apart.
The force created is strong enough to knock out the centipedes the ants hunt so they can drag them back to their nest to feed to their young.
It is also a powerful fighting move, which can slam a rival ant against the wall of a log.
Scientists confirmed the Dracula ant is the very fastest using cutting-edge video technology.

Dracula ants are known as ‘snap-jaw’ ants instead of the ‘trap-jaw’ ants which slam their jaws shut to eat tasty insects.
Instead of pushing their jaws together, they slide one across the other in a motion which takes only 23 microseconds.

more at dailymail.co.uk

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