Why the cheetah is the fastest animal on the planet

Scientists have discovered that cheetahs can run faster than 100 km/h thanks to their appropriate body weight.

The cheetah is the fastest animal on the planet. Photo: Mateo Juric

Fast-running animals like cheetahs are usually medium-sized. An international team of researchers from Imperial College London, Harvard University, the University of Queensland and the University of the Sunshine Coast set out to find out why and published their findings in the journal Nature Communications, Newsweek reported on March 13.

Dr David Labonte from Imperial College London's Department of Bioengineering and colleagues found that there are two limits to how fast animals can run: how fast and how much their muscles can contract. The first limit, called the "momentum capacity limit", limits how fast a smaller animal's muscles can contract. The second limit, called the "activity limit", limits how much a larger animal's muscles can contract.

According to Professor Christofer Clemente from the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Queensland, cheetah-sized animals exist at a physical sweet spot of 50kg, where the two limits intersect. As a result, they are the fastest species, capable of reaching speeds of up to 105km/h.

When the team tested the model’s accuracy, they found that it correctly predicted the top running speeds of a wide range of animals, including large mammals, birds, and lizards. Not only does the model answer the question of how one species runs faster than another, it also sheds light on how muscles evolved and provides clues about why there are such large differences between groups of animals. For example, why large reptiles like crocodiles are slower than mammals.

This is because the muscles in the limbs make up a smaller percentage of the reptile’s body, says study co-author Taylor Dick of the University of Queensland. They need to reach their performance limits with a smaller body mass, meaning they need to be small to move quickly. For large animals like rhinos and elephants, running is like lifting a giant weight because their muscles are relatively weak and require more effort to overcome gravity. As a result, animals slow down as they get larger.

Research also shows that the heaviest animal alive today on land is the African elephant, weighing 6.6 tons.

An Khang (According to Newsweek )

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