I did not invent the nonsense, it was implied by the existence of the article itself. If this flea had used some hitherto unknown chemical reaction, there would have been no article. But use a toothed gear-like structure instead, and suddenly it's an article and a post to HN, no less. This implies that it's something special with gears, which I tried to assume in my comment. I tried to present the inherent contradiction in assuming that gears are special by arguing from the reluctant viewpoint of someone who thinks it is true.

Many commenters seemed to think I was asking a question of which of the possibilities was the correct one, and (correctly) answered that the fourth one was correct. This was not my intent, I merely wanted people to reflect on the possibilities and come to their own conclusion.