Lalon SanderOct 18
"Humans aren’t very efficient movers—until you put us on a bicycle, when we become some of the most energy-efficient land travelers in the animal kingdom.": https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-human-on-a-bicycle-is-among-the-most-efficient-forms-of-travel-in-the/
Show threadRaul

@lalonsander Something else is that the vertical axis is per km, so absolute distances. It would be interesting to see this worked out not for absolute distances, but for relative ones with respect to the animal's body length. That way smaller animals will most likely not end up plotted as a lot less efficient compared to larger ones that do travel kilometers instead of just meters or even cm at a time.

For context: I remember reading somewhere that the fastest land mammals are cheetas in absolute speed terms. But with respect to body size, cats are in fact faster. And the fastest mammal on land in terms of body size turns out to be a hare. (A bat wins the fastest mammal battles if you include flying.)

The record fastest land animal in terms of body size displacements per unit of time is in fact a tiny mite:
https://www.ibtimes.com/worlds-fastest-land-animal-has-new-name-meet-paratarsotomus-macropalpis-mite-made-speed-1577349

The World’s Fastest Land Animal Has A New Name: Meet Paratarsotomus Macropalpis, A Mite Made For Speed

Paratarsotomus macropalpis, a species of mite that’s endemic to Southern California, was recently found to be the world’s fastest land animal.

International Business Times
Oct 18 at 9:46amWeb
Show threadClickyMcTickerOct 18
@raulinbonn @lalonsander Who measures speed like that? Roads list kilometers per hour, not car lengths per hour. It’s a fun fact, but speed is measured in standardized units.
Show threadRaulOct 18
@ClickyMcTicker @lalonsander Biologists do. Same thing for strength of the animals not in terms of absolute weight they can lift, but relative to their body weights. Ants are therefore incredibly strong relatively speaking. And that's why the fastest land animal (in relative terms) is not the cheetah, but that tiny mite. In fact quite a few other smaller animals end up higher in the ranking than the cheetah, including cats.
Show threadWesDymOct 19
@ClickyMcTicker Both of these are fair examples. It depends what you hope to compare, and why. If you're filling a fuel tank, km/l is what you need to know, but that's only one way to measure efficiency. All methods have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on what knowledge you want to gain from it.