Peacock Spider: 50 Beats in 3 Seconds

At exactly 3 seconds into a 2011 slow-motion video from the University of Sydney, a male peacock spider, Maratus volans, has already struck the ground with his third leg 50 times. The spider is 5 millimeters wide, smaller than a single aspirin, but his dance booms at a frequency two times faster than a human drummer can manage. Each stomp sends vibrations into the leaf he stands on, but his rivals, less than a centimeter away, can't see his feet move-they freeze because his display triggers a signal that even the females recognize. As his iridescent abdomen fans out like a stained-glass window, the female turns her eight eyes entirely toward the blur. But if his dance skips a beat or slows below 16 per second, she loses interest and may attack, so he risks an all-or-nothing finale. That entire 50-beat sequence is over before a human blink finishes, and if he keeps the pace, she lets him approach-if he falters, he's gone in half a second.