Just how fast can a gecko go? New research has shown how Asian geckos are able to run over water at nearly a metre per second.

That’s as fast as they can run on land – or wherever they want to go.

Geckos simultaneously use four techniques to run across the water. Credit:Pauline Jennings, UC Berkeley. Courtesy of PolyPEDAL Lab

“They can run up a wall at a metre per second, they can glide, they can right themselves in mid-air with a twist of their tail and rapidly invert under a leaf running at full speed. And now they can run at a metre per second over water,” said Robert Full, a University of Californian Berkeley professor of integrative biology, in a university statement.

“Nothing else can do that. Geckos are superheroes.’’