A New Study Details How Cats Almost Always Land on Their Feet

The secret to this acrobatic skill lies in an extremely flexible part of the spine that allows cats to twist in the air and land safely. It's well established that when cats fall, they're able to land perfectly most of the time, nimbly maneuvering to right themselves before they hit the ground. Now, researchers at Japan's Yamaguchi University have advanced our understanding of this extraordinary ability, focusing on the mechanical properties of feline spines. What they found, as detailed in a recent study in the journal The Anatomical Record, is that those sure-footed landings are due in part to the fact that a cat's thoracic region is much more flexible than its lumbar region. While a cat's ability to rotate in the air without something to push again seems to defy the laws of physics, it's instead a complex righting maneuver.