Springtails do the fastest backflip on earth!

I published new research describing how globular springtails jump! This video summarizes some of that work and shows all of the ways we filmed and visualized all the components of their jumps. The globular species we researched is Dicyrtomina minuta.

Here are the peer-reviewed research papers that are featured in this video:

Smith AA, Harrison JS. 2024 Jumping performance and behavior of the globular springtail Dicyrtomina minuta. Integrative Organismal Biology. doi: 10.1093/iob/obae029

Oliveira FGL, Smith AA. 2024. A morphofunctional study of the jumping apparatus in globular springtails. Arthropod Structure and Development. 79: 101333. doi: 10.1016/j.asd.2024.101333

If some of this video seems familiar, it is! I've been putting out springtail videos as these research projects have been happening in the lab. Here are the older springtail videos, some of which have shown this species and parts of the research before:
   • The Extremely Fast Animals in Your Ya...  
   • Springtail Jumps Off Water and in Sup...  
   • Globular springtails jump and spin fa...  

00:00 - What's a springtail?
01:52 - takeoff
03:24 - trajectory
04:41 - landing
05:52 - gee whiz, these things are cool

music licensed from soundofpicture.com