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Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#31

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

suifbwish wrote: post #11
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #5

Some fig wasps have zinc plated ovipositors. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a12957/foun...

Knowing that it is possible to have these genetic traits makes me feel that humans are even more delicate than first thought.

Interestingly, vertibrates rely heavily on metals for the strength of their skeletons via the calcium mineral matrix calcium hydroxiapatite, up to 50% by volume and 70% by weight of human bone is a modified form of hydroxyapatite.

And many of our enzymes contain metals (magnesium, a lot), and some transport proteins too (famously haemoglobin).

Zinc is essential in humans for DNA replication. We need chromium and molybdenum in tiny amounts for blood sugar control and hunger regulation.

Though none of these seem quite as spectacular as metal plares body parts!

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#32

Post by tooltower »

sammalloy wrote: post #22

> never before seen in insects Is this surprising, considering that an estimated 86% of species on Earth and 91% of ocean species remain unidentified? https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jou...

It can be fascinating without being surprising. That argument can be used to downplay any new finding in a poorly explored field.

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#33

Post by anonytrary »

dang wrote: post #20
mytailorisrich wrote: post #2

Correct link: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/11/leaf-cutt...

Changed from https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/anima... . Thanks!

Thanks for all of your hard work dang! Happy Thanksgiving.

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#34

Post by anamexis »

suifbwish wrote: post #10
xeeeeeeeeeeenu wrote: post #8

Another interesting animal, an iron snail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaly-foot_snail

Wow that’s one of the coolest things I never learned about until now

Isn't it the only thing you've never learned about until now?

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#35

Post by baobabKoodaa »

_Microft wrote: post #6
zrkrlc wrote: post #4

I like how their experiment was literally pitting ants against each other.

I can't help empathizing with animals in such a situation. It must be like getting teleported into an otherwise empty room with a tiger in it. (Turns out that humans with chainmail fare a lot better than those without!)

Imagine an alien species that studies humans and a researcher discovers that some humans are wearing chainmail armor to battles. The researcher hypothesizes that wearing armor improves humans' odds in said battles. Of course this calls for a n=5000 study on human gladiator battles where some participants are provided chainmail armor and others are not. Ahh, science. Meanwhile, all the humans are like: uhh, yeah, 5000 of us died for this Sherlock?

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#36

Post by throwanem »

xipho wrote: post #19
corey_moncure wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some blood worms have copper fangs!

And various other wasps have heavy metals concentrated near the apex of their mandibles. There's also resilin, an elastic-like compound(?) that concentrates energy at certain parts of insect joins, used during jumping, or other fast movements.

Which wasps?

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#37

Post by chordalkeyboard »

anamexis wrote: post #34
suifbwish wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that’s one of the coolest things I never learned about until now

Isn't it the only thing you've never learned about until now?

no, now its the only thing he learned about until then.

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#38

Post by chordalkeyboard »

inawarminister wrote: post #30
MaximumYComb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even wearing chain mail I doubt you'd have a chance much higher than zero against a full grown tiger.

I don't know, properly made chainmail suit is bite and scratchproof. Might be able to wrestle the tiger into submission. Though the weight of the tiger is going to be a VERY HUGE issue. Give me a spear and I'll be willing though.

not bite proof, this is why they use cages to protect against really big sharks.

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#39

Post by learnstats2 »

sammalloy wrote: post #22

> never before seen in insects Is this surprising, considering that an estimated 86% of species on Earth and 91% of ocean species remain unidentified? https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jou...

Considering that leaf-cutter ants are well-known to humans (I've seen them in a museum in Amsterdam), I'd say it is surprising that we haven't noticed this before.

Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

#40

Post by CompuHacker »

Razengan wrote: post #12
emerged wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ants individually are just happy to be of service to the queen. They should put a picture of the queen nearby as motivation.

Pheromones of the queen you mean.

We'll make it scratch and sniff.
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