As of: February 22, 2024, 7:45 a.m
By: Sophie Kluß
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Unknown to most, it is blind and less than a millimeter long: the strongest animal in the world.
The horned mite holds many times its own body weight.
The ant is not the strongest animal in the world: the creature with the most strength is much smaller than the busy insects.
Because measured by its tiny body size of less than a millimeter, it is a blind mite that is considered by science to be the strongest animal in the world: the horned mite.
Blind oribatid mite is the strongest animal in the world
The blind horned mite is the strongest animal in the world - measured at less than a millimeter in size.
The arachnid can hold almost 1200 times its own body weight.
© Michael Heethoff/picture-alliance/dpa
The measurement of a living being's strength does not only refer to its strength, but is calculated based on the ratio of strength to its body size and weight.
While many people assume that the ant is the strongest animal in the world, it is actually another tiny creature: the horned mite, a truly tiny arachnid.
With a size of less than a millimeter and a weight of one ten-thousandth of a gram, it is able to hold 1200 times what it weighs.
Measurements showed: No animal is relatively stronger
The scanning electron microscope image shows the ventral side of the oribatid mite.
The oribatid mite, which is widespread in the tropics, weighs only a ten-thousandth of a gram and lives in the soil on decaying organisms.
It has strong digging claws that are around a twentieth of a millimeter long.
© Michael Heethoff/picture-alliance/dpa
The scientists measured the pulling force needed to lift the mite from the rough, horizontal laboratory floor despite its strong claws, reaching a record value: 1,180 times the mite's own weight.
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According to the researchers, this means that the mite, which is widespread in the tropics, is five times stronger than would be expected for an organism of this size.
To date, no greater balance of power has been demonstrated in animals anywhere in the world.
To provide an imaginable comparison: the oribatid mite is therefore – measured by its body size – stronger than an elephant and a rhinoceros combined.
Converted to human strength, this would mean that a person weighing around 70 kilograms would have to lift around 82.6 tonnes to keep up with the mite.
This weight would correspond to around 24 small trucks or two fully loaded forty-ton trucks.
Incredible, is not it?
Who would have thought that an animal not visible to the naked eye would have the greatest strength in the animal kingdom?
Researchers suspect the reason for its incredible strength lies in the way it obtains food: They assume that the mite has to clear away heavy chunks of earth underground in order to get to its food.
The strong claws could also serve as protection against natural predators.