In the world of engineered animals, none seems as graceful as the messenger cheetah. She races on her mechanical limbs, seeking the tiny racing gadgets that make up her diet. And she's joined by a herd of mechanical allies.

You may already be familiar with the work of Andrew Chase, who has been designing a series of mechanical animals for a picture book called the Trionic Morphatractable Engineer. The cheetah messenger is his latest. A photographer and designer by day, Chase invents anatomically complicated animals out of metal, including elephants, a giraffe, and now this cheetah According to Baekdal:

The cheetah measures 24" high (61cm) and 50" nose to tail (127cm) and weighs about 40 lbs. She took about 60 hours, spaced over 10 weeks time to build. She's constructed out of . . . electrical conduit, transmission parts, and 20 gauge steel.

Chase has also posed the cheetah in a series of very realistic running poses, creating a stop-motion movie out of them. I can't wait to see his book. If you want to see more of Chase's art, check out his gallery.