A new Current Biology study from researchers including Toho University uses multi-angle video to explain how dwarf reedsnakes roll away from danger. Their bodies rotate in coordinated motions, but their heads stay pointed forward and at a relatively stable height.
The finding is surprising because an animal has no axle separating a rotating wheel from a stationary chassis. The snakes achieve something functionally similar through body control, a potential inspiration for robotics and soft-machine design.
The university’s original research release includes a movement diagram and the journal citation. It is the kind of discovery worth opening just to see how nature solved a mechanical problem.
Go to Source — Primary: https://global.toho-u.ac.jp/research/pr-1658/