How a falling cat is able to right itself and land on its feet has long been a mystery. Scientists have been trying to figure it out for more than a century.
In 1894, a scientific exploration of the subject was published by a French physiologist named Étienne-Jules Marey. He used early high-speed photography to capture a cat twisting through the air as it fell. It gained widespread attention.
The cat appeared to defy the law of conservation of angular momentum in physics. In 1969, researchers used mathematics to show that cats twist different parts of their bodies to reorient themselves in midair.
Now, in 2026, a team of researchers from Yamaguchi University in Japan has conducted further investigation into the phenomenon.
They found that a cat’s ability to land on its feet is partially due to the differences in flexibility along its spine.
The researchers analyzed the spines of five cat cadavers. They carefully separated the thoracic spine (upper/middle back) from the lumbar spine (lower back) and measured each section’s strength, flexibility, and resistance to rotation. The ligaments and intervertebral discs were left in place.
In addition, they used high-speed cameras to record two cats as they fell onto a soft cushion. They dropped the cats eight times each from a height of 3.3 feet and tracked the movement of their body parts, including the shoulders and hips.
The research team discovered that different parts of the spine move in different ways to help cats land safely. The thoracic spine is more flexible than the stiffer lumbar spine.
It has a neutral zone, which is the range of motion where minimal force is required for movement. It can twist for almost 50 degrees without much effort. Meanwhile, the lumbar spine assists with stability.
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When falling, a cat rights itself in the air by first rotating its head and front legs toward the ground. The front of the body is where the thoracic spine is located, so it’s lighter and more flexible.
The back half of the body follows suit. The time between the two halves was around 94 milliseconds for one cat and 72 milliseconds for the other.
The lumbar spine helps stabilize the cat, allowing it to turn its front around without losing control of where its whole body goes.
“These results suggest that trunk rotation during air-righting in cats occurs sequentially, with the anterior trunk rotating first, followed by the posterior trunk, and that their flexible thoracic spine and rigid lumbar spine in axial torsion are suited for this behavior,” wrote the authors of the study.
However, they did note that for the cat cadavers, they had to cut through the rib cages, possibly affecting the way the thoracic spine moves.
In the future, more research on the spine could help scientists learn about mammals and their locomotor performance.
The findings of the study were published in The Anatomical Record.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
