mechanical gears seen in nature

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Functioning ‘mechanical gears’ seen in nature for the first time

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The juvenile Issus - a plant-hopping insect found in gardens across Europe - has hind-leg joints with curved cog-like strips of opposing ‘teeth’ that intermesh, rotating like mechanical gears to synchronise the animal’s legs when it launches into a jump.

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The finding demonstrates that gear mechanisms previously thought to be solely man-made have an evolutionary precedent. Scientists say this is the first observation of mechanical gearing in a biological structure.

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