Top 10 Fastest Animals on Earth

The fastest land animal is the cheetah which has a recorded speed of 96–120 km/h (60–75 mph).[1] The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird, and the fastest member of the animal kingdom with a speed of 389 km/h (242 mph).[2] The fastest animal in the sea is the black marlin, which has a recorded speed of 130 km/h (80 mph).[3]Show more

While comparing between various classes of animals, a different unit is used, body length per second. The fastest animal on earth, relative to body length, is the South Californian mite Paratarsotomus macropalpis, which has a speed of 322 body lengths per second.[4] The equivalent speed for a human running as fast as this mite would be 1,300 mph (2,092 km/h).[5] This is far in excess of the previous record holder, the Australian tiger beetle, Cicindela eburneola, the fastest insect in the world relative to body size, which has been recorded at 1.86 metres per second (4.2 mph) or 171 body lengths per second.[6] The cheetah, the fastest land mammal, scores at only 16 body lengths per second [4] while Anna's hummingbird has the highest known length-specific velocity attained by any vertebrate.