(CNN) -- The world record long jump of 29 feet, 4 1/4 inches, set by American Mike Powell, has stood for nearly 22 years. That imposing distance is nearly five times Powell's 6-foot-2 height. But an athletic, evolved guppy would scoff at that accomplishment, if you can consider guppies athletic. And if guppies scoffed. The popular pet fish can jump up to eight times their body length, at speeds of more than 4 feet per second, according to a recently published research paper in the online peer-reviewed journal PLOS One. University of Maryland biologist Daphne De Freitas Soares and biology lecturer Hilary S. Bierman discovered the guppies' ability while using high-speed videography and digital imaging to analyze the jumping behavior of nine guppies from a wild Trinidadian species, Poecilia reticulata, related to the familiar pet-shop fish.
@highlight
U. of Maryland researchers say they've witnessed never-before-seen behavior in fish
@highlight
Guppies jump by swimming backwards, then changing direction and launching
@highlight
The biology professor and lecturer say the fish can jump eight times their body length
@highlight
The best human long jumper ever, Mike Powell, jumped nearly five times his height
While studying evolutionary changes to the guppies' brain stems, one of the fish jumped out of a laboratory tank and into @placeholder' cup of iced chai, prompting closer scrutiny, she said.