IT'S TOUGH TO BE TINY When you're tiny some things feel out of reach Bigger creatures seem more powerful than you It's not easy to get noticed And sometimes you get squashed But there's tiny and then there's tiny 8 Tardigrades also known as water bears are smaller than the dot above this i
When you're that tiny there are a lot of bigger creatures that want to eat you Wolf spider What's it like to be so small How do these tiny creatures stay safe or hunt for their lunch It helps to have a superpower Like spring loaded jumps or microscopic toxic darts Some tiny creatures have armour or wear a scary costume Some buddy up with a bigger creature which is pretty nice for the bigger creatures too Cricket
legs JUMP FOR YOUR LIFE When you're really tiny your feet and legs are tiny too Tiny legs can't run very fast A powerful jump can take you far away from predators much faster than the blink of an eye Gears in a planthopper's Interlocking Legs These little fuzzbutts are baby planthoppers They have a special trick tucked in their fluff super strong back legs that let them leap away Their jumps are so powerful they need a way to make sure both legs push off at precisely the same time They use gears The gears synchronize their legs so planthoppers can jump straight ahead If one leg pushed sooner the planthopper would go into a crazy spin No other animal on Earth has legs like this 3 mm Although baby planthoppers are only a few millimetres long about the size of a grain of rice they can jump distances 100 times their own length They could jump right out of this book Songthrush
Look Mum no legs Springtails jump away from predators without using their legs They have a stiff tail called a furca that they bend around and clip to their bellies like a seat belt for safety Except this seat belt doesn't keep them in place it flings them far away When there's danger they unclip their secret spring loaded furca It whips out and hits the ground somersaulting them into the sky They tumble when they land 5 mm Springtails can jump a few times before they need to rest and re load their spring 5 3 2 The springtail somersault sequence
