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Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

arstechnica.com

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Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#21

Post by madaxe_again »

ants_everywhere wrote: post #2

Ants also farm aphids, so they may have beaten us to livestock farming too

They also spelt barley. I’ve watched the sugar ants here with fascination as late every summer they gather vast quantities of barley corns, and then drag them below ground. A few weeks later they eject heaps of husks around the entrances to their nests, and on the one occasion I accidentally dug into one of their nests, it stank like a malthouse.

I can only assume that their purpose is to convert the carbohydrates in the grain into sugars by encouraging the germination process, which they then live off through the winter.

I can’t actually seem to find any documentation of the behaviour, but after seeing them do it for the five years we’ve lived here, I’m under the impression it’s no fluke.

Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#22

Post by sornaensis »

Timwi wrote: post #16

Yet another science piece that perpetuates the misconception that “the mass extinction killed the dinosaurs”. The clade of dinosaurs is not extinct and it bothers me that science writers don't seem to learn this fact and keep getting it wrong.

'The extinction of non-Avian Dinosaurs' just doesn't roll off the tongue.

Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#23

Post by sfn42 »

madaxe_again wrote: post #20
interludead wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such changes could be millions of years in the making

Evolution, like geology, tends to happen in fits and starts - yes, it happens over very long timescales as a general phenomenon , but significant changes tend to happen in very short timescales, before then annealing over a population and finding equilibrium over a longer timescale. Take lactose tolerance in humans, for instance. That happened almost spontaneously in Northern European populations 6kYa, as it was such…

If there are bacteria that can feed on plastic (not saying there aren't), wouldn't they have essentially no competition and thus thrive in plastic polluted environments?

Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#24

Post by bamboozled »

baanist wrote: post #15
interludead wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such changes could be millions of years in the making

I think it has already started¹. 1: https://neurosciencenews.com/microplastics-brain-health-2779...

What does this have to do with ants evolving to eat plastic ?

Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#25

Post by bamboozled »

sfn42 wrote: post #23
madaxe_again wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evolution, like geology, tends to happen in fits and starts - yes, it happens over very long timescales as a general phenomenon , but significant changes tend to happen in very short timescales, before then annealing over a population and finding equilibrium over a longer timescale. Take lactose tolerance in humans, for instance. That happened almost spontaneously in Northern European populations 6kYa, as it was such…

If there are bacteria that can feed on plastic (not saying there aren't), wouldn't they have essentially no competition and thus thrive in plastic polluted environments?

They are bacteria, they convert plastic to energy for fu and then get eaten by other bacteria, they don’t turn into plastic.

Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#28

Post by 1over137 »

bamboozled wrote: post #24
baanist wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it has already started¹. 1: https://neurosciencenews.com/microplastics-brain-health-2779...

What does this have to do with ants evolving to eat plastic ?

Maybe he means the mass extinction has already started (due to plastic pollution).

Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#29

Post by [deleted] »

sfn42 wrote: post #23
madaxe_again wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evolution, like geology, tends to happen in fits and starts - yes, it happens over very long timescales as a general phenomenon , but significant changes tend to happen in very short timescales, before then annealing over a population and finding equilibrium over a longer timescale. Take lactose tolerance in humans, for instance. That happened almost spontaneously in Northern European populations 6kYa, as it was such…

If there are bacteria that can feed on plastic (not saying there aren't), wouldn't they have essentially no competition and thus thrive in plastic polluted environments?

[deleted]

Re: Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction

#30

Post by jeltz »

madaxe_again wrote: post #21
ants_everywhere wrote: post #2

Ants also farm aphids, so they may have beaten us to livestock farming too

They also spelt barley. I’ve watched the sugar ants here with fascination as late every summer they gather vast quantities of barley corns, and then drag them below ground. A few weeks later they eject heaps of husks around the entrances to their nests, and on the one occasion I accidentally dug into one of their nests, it stank like a malthouse. I can only assume that their purpose is to convert the carbohydrates in…

An article on another species doing this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5125654/
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