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Biological Gears
Oct 1, 2023
Strange as it may sound, there are insects that possess real gears in their bodies. They belong to the Phulgoroidea family, and are commonly known as Planthopper.
Where two of its back legs meet, one can see rows of tiny teeth interlocking together. The mechanism is used to keep the legs synchronized during jumps, so that they rotate and snap at the same time.
The precision of the mechanism is such that the movements of the two legs are never separated by a time-lapse larger than 30 millionths of a second.
Thus, mechanisms not unlike those of clocks, can also be found in the animal kingdom as a perfectly possible system of locomotion.
