Gears in the body of a grasshopper

British zoologists found in the joint grasshoppers gear. Toothed projections can synchronize the movement of the limbs, and this, in turn, makes it possible to make long jumps and lift off the ground at a speed of up to four meters per second. Details are given in the article for the journal Science.

Observation with a microscope and camera shooting speed, making 5000 fps revealed that the gears are turned together in the preparation of the insect to pounce at a moment when his limbs simultaneously repelled from the surface.
Each joint has two semicircular segment length of about 400 micrometers, or 12 to 10 teeth. The radius of the segment is about 200 micrometers, so the joint is not a cog in the full sense of the word. Nevertheless, two-thirds of the circumference of the gear act as a full screen. Play this mechanism is so small that desync movement does not exceed 30 microseconds (0, 03 milliseconds): According to the researchers, to achieve this level of precision due to nerve impulses lasting about milliseconds physically impossible.

The scientists stressed that they do not know detections in animals functional gears, structures that not only look like gears, but also provide the engagement of rotating parts.

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