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Fleas leap from feet, not knees

An investigation of how the impressive jumpers take off finds an answer

By Daniel Strain

- More than 2 years ago

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HOP TO IT Jumping fleas launch off from their equivalent of feet (the tibiae and tarsi), not their knees (the trochantera), new research shows. G. Sutton and M. Burrows/Journal of Experimental Biology 2011
A decades-old debate about how the animal kingdom’s most renowned jumper jumps appears to be settled.