meet the beests
Constructed from plastic PVC tubing, zip ties, and string, strandbeests are the ultimate in humble down-home DIY. But they come to life with animal grace the second they begin to move: Wings flap. Tubular muscles extend. Knobby knees flex. Feet lift. Wind is gulped and stored for energy.
The beach animals’ simple parts belie their complex construction and behaviors. Mechanical nerves trigger reflexes that border on thought. Always, survival is the goal. One beest detects an incoming tide, turns, and beats a retreat to higher ground. Another, sensing the high winds of a storm, pounds an anchor into the sand to keep itself from blowing away.
The product of a 25-year lineage of ongoing evolution, each species of strandbeest bears a Latin name reflective of its unique character and adaptations. Animaris Currens Vaporis, or “walking steam animal,” puffs like a steam engine. Animaris Vermiculus, or “worm animal,” wriggles like its namesake. Newer species retain the successful anatomical features of their predecessors, while shedding what fails to serve.
Explore the 25-year lineage of the beach animals here, and see how evolution and innovation in form, tools, and technique—the haphazard lessons of sheer trial and error—have shaped the strandbeests over time.
The Blind Watchmaker With Paul Stepahin
Theo Jansen’s strandbeests are made up of many interesting organs. They have legs that take elegant strides. They have stomachs to store energy, allowing them to walk even when there’s no wind. They can even detect water and count their steps. Explore strandbeest anatomy and what it reveals about living creatures and the process of natural selection.
PREGLUTON
The Period Before the Gluton, before 1990
animaris linamentum
This first and simplest life form lived exclusively on a computer screen. Originally a simple drifting rod with a stinging tail, after many generations this linear creature slowly evolved an increasingly curly shape, which helped to defend it against attacks by others of its species.
GLUTON
The Tape Period, 1990-1991
animaris vulgaris
The first beach animal, Vulgaris had 28 legs. Sadly, it could only move these legs while lying on its back. Otherwise, it would collapse under its own weight. Vulgaris owed its frailty to weak connective tissue—adhesive tape—the defining feature of the short-lived Gluton epoch.
animaris derba
A single leg is the only evidence for Derba. This leg is similar to the legs of Animaris Vulgaris, but much larger, suggesting a huge body.
CHORDA
The Strap Period, 1991-1993
animaris currens vulgaris
This was the first beach animal able to both stand and walk. It moved with an awkward herky-jerky gait, digging its heels into the sand. Aided by an Atari computer, its two-part leg evolved rapidly to an optimal configuration for walking on sand—proportions Jansen calls “The Holy Numbers.”
CALIDUM
The Hot Period, 1993-1994
animaris currens ventosa
Its name means “beach animal running on wind.” Indeed, two wings on its back rippled in the breeze, but the wings were too heavy—the beest could flap them only a few times before collapsing under their weight. The short life of Currens Ventosa was not in vain; footage from its brief moment of glory secured funding that cleared the path for future strandbeests.
animaris sabulosa
Known as “the sandy one,” this beach animal had a skin of see-through adhesive tape to which sand would stick, creating the perfect shoreline camouflage.
TEPIDEEM
The Less-Hot Period, 1994-1997
animaris rigide properans
Properans was a sturdy, fast-moving propeller animal that traveled sideways in crab-like fashion.
animaris ancora
A heavy, rolling, anchor-like tail kept this beast from toppling or blowing away. Like a weathervane, it automatically turned tail to the wind.
animaris geneticus
These herd animals were numerous and reproduced rapidly. Slight mutations caused some to move faster and better than others—these were selected to pass their “genes” on to others. Slow and sickly members of the herd were consumed and used to make new beests.
LIGNATUM
The Wood Period, 1997-2001
animaris rhinoceros tabulae
For several years, giant beests made of wood—not plastic tubing—dominated. The wood came from discarded pallets, and allowed the beests to grow huge. Heavy and lumbering, these beests could not propel themselves, but instead exploited human push-power.
animaris rugosus ondula
The only plastic tubing-based life to appear in the wood-dominated Lignatum epoch was this small caterpillar-like animal. It moved by undulating—but only with help, since it had no muscles of its own.
VAPORUM
The Pneumatic Period, 2001-2006
animaris vermiculus
Moving with a whip-like wriggle, primitive Vermiculus is a direct descendent of the primordial line animals. Yet with 28 muscles, 28 wind stomachs, 14 nerves, and primitive brains to control the muscles, it shows complexity akin to more modern beests.
CEREBRUM
The Brains Period, 2006-present
animaris excelsus
Excelsus was a formidable beest in its day, able to exert a force a hundred times its weight. It had brains, a wind stomach, a winch structure, wheels, and even a hammer that it used to secure itself to the beach. The cause of this beest’s extinction is the subject of debate, but some wonder if the wheels were to blame: Have you ever ridden a bicycle in soft sand?
animaris rectus
Rectus evolved a novel approach to self-preservation. Sensing the approach of a storm, it hammered a stake into the sand to keep itself from blowing away. Ironically, wind supplied the power needed to defeat the wind. Rippling sails on Rectus’ back captured energy from the wind, converting it to pressurized air that then powered the hammer.
animaris ordis
Small but mobile, Ordis is an opportunist, exploiting wind and human power alike to expand its territory.
Lacking the grandeur of other beests, it nonetheless quietly proliferates by virtue of its adaptability, often adopting other forms. The much larger Animaris Turgentia Vela, for example, is actually two Ordii joined together. A dwarf Ordis has been spotted living in propulsive symbiosis with a hamster.
animaris adulari
Drowning is a real danger for strandbeests, living as they do by the seashore. Wagging its nose here and there, Adulari samples its surroundings in an effort to detect incoming surface. If nerves in its nose detect water, Adulari reverses direction, heading for higher—and safer—ground.
Sand, too, can cause problems for strandbeests—it jams into their joints and they grind to a halt. Adulari is the first beest to evolve sweat glands, which exude water under pressure to flush sand from sensitive spots.
animaris apodiacula
Fierce winds can topple even the sturdiest strandbeest, leaving it helpless. A low profile is one defense, but Apodiacula evolved its own unique protection against gusts—outrigger buttresses to keep it upright in high wind. This evolutionary adaptation allowed Apodiacula to grow exceptionally tall.
Now a fossil, Apodiacula lives on indirectly—its outrigger ski adaptation was inherited by Animaris Suspendisse.
animaris umerus segundus
Nose to the ground, this beest pushes itself forward using energy stored in a row of wind stomachs—plastic bottles along the beest’s shoulder. It’s the location of these stomachs that inspire the name Umerus, or “shoulder,” in Latin.
Despite highly evolved pivoting feet and strong legs, Umerus proved too unstable for life on the beach. However, it survives well in the calmer conditions of museums.
animaris suspendisse
The latest and largest of the strandbeest, 43-foot-long Suspendisse borrows many features from its forebears: Ordis' legs, Apodiacula’s outrigger skis, and Adulari’s sweat glands and nose feelers.
Sails help Suspendisse gulp the wind, directing air toward pistons that squeeze the air into recycled plastic bottles, or wind stomachs. Later, if the wind dies down, Suspendisse can use this stored energy to retreat from the rising tide.
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