Scientists said the Saharan silver ant is the world's fastest ant. It runs at just over 3kph. This is the ant speed of a person running 580kph. It runs 108 times its body length every second. It makes up to 50 strides a second. This almost breaks the limits of what is possible for a living thing. An Olympic 100-meter runner makes four strides a second. The ants' feet touch the ground for a very short time - just seven milliseconds before they take the next stride.
The silver ant runs fast because the desert is hot. The sand can be 60 degrees Celsius. The ant doesn't want to spend time on the hot sand. Also, the ants will sink a little and slow down if they spend too long on the sand. A professor said the ants' feet move so fast because of their sandy habitat. Their fast speed stops their feet sinking into the soft sand. He said nobody knew how fast the ants really were, and how they could run so fast.