Sarcoma 180 monolayers spontaneously shed single cells and small multicellular aggregates into the surrounding medium to produce a dual population of floating and substratum-attached cells. Shedding was a motility-associated event that occurred when cells attempted to migrate over one another. It resulted from a combination of cell shape change and active motility, which increased sensitivity to fluid shear dislodgement by reducing a cell's surface area of adhesive contact and increasing strain tension at its adhesive contact points. Shedding occurred at all phases of the cell cycle. Extracellular matrix but not conditioned medium enhanced the floating subpopulation by slowing the kinetics of reattachment to plastic and cellular substrate. Although sarcoma 180 cells are anchorage independent in the sense that they grow readily in single cell suspension, they nevertheless exhibited anchorage modulation of their cell cycle. Short periods in suspension produced a mild G1 accumulation, whereas longer periods of anchorage deprivation led to a mild G2 accumulation which appeared to result from an interference with cytokinesis.