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Little leapers

A huge and varied population of animals live on the land that have bodies little or no different from their ancestors that came from the sea long ago. And they are extraordinarily successful. But they are seldom seen and showing a springtail next to a pin head shows why. They are tiny and there may be over 10,000 individuals in the space of a square metre. Drying out is a very real danger and some waterproof themselves regularly with a droplet of special grooming fluid. They have 2 inflateable tubes that enable them to get to those hard to reach places. The have a rather novel way of jumping. A tiny 2 pronged lever that can catapault them some 15cms into the air. The equivalent of a human jumping over the Eiffel Tower.

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