Researchers from North Carolina State University claim to have uncovered the secrets behind the extraordinary jumping abilities of the globular springtail.

The study, led by Adrian Smith, reportedly found that the tiny hexapod, Dicyrtomina minuta, measuring just a couple of millimeters, employs a unique appendage called a furca to launch itself into the air. This allows it to achieve backflips at an astonishing rate of 368 rotations per second.

This performance, captured using high-speed cameras shooting at 40,000 frames per second, is said to reveal that springtails can leap over 60 times their own body height in just one-thousandth of a second.

Adrian said: 'When globular springtails jump, they don't just leap; they execute a series of backflips that are the closest thing to a Sonic the Hedgehog jump in nature.'

Study co-author Jacob Harrison said the springtails' method of jumping isn't for locomotion but primarily for escaping predators.

The study also found that the springtails land in two different ways: an uncontrolled tumble or an anchored landing where they use a sticky forked tube to halt their momentum.

The lead researcher said: 'This is a great example of how we can find incredible, and largely undescribed, organisms living all around us," Smith remarked, emphasizing the importance of exploring the microcosms in our environment.'