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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

#41

Post by freshpots »

chordalkeyboard wrote: post #38
inawarminister wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sharks are larger and have larger teeth though. Plus, they have an advantage b/c they live in water and we don't. Bring them to land and we can debate a cage-less shark fight. The tiger situation seems more possible but I wouldn't try it.

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

#42

Post by chordalkeyboard »

freshpots wrote: post #41
chordalkeyboard wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sharks are larger and have larger teeth though. Plus, they have an advantage b/c they live in water and we don't. Bring them to land and we can debate a cage-less shark fight. The tiger situation seems more possible but I wouldn't try it.

I'm just saying that there's a limit to the amount of bite protection provided by chain mail.

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

#43

Post by ghayes »

tooltower wrote: post #32
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.

I'd also argue that it _is_ surprising, as we'd expect the majority of unknown species to be similar to known species. It's not like every unknown species is just randomly created-- most will have ancestors that are well known and studied.

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

#44

Post by kingbirdy »

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.

Chainmail is bite proof in that it will likely prevent the tiger's teeth from puncturing your skin, but a tiger's jaw is strong enough to snap almost any bone in your body through the chainmail, so it's ultimately not going to do you much good.

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

#45

Post by Cactus2018 »

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

Reminds me of the episode of "Primitive Technology" where he turns terrestrial snail shells into lime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek3aeUhHaFY

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

#46

Post by edgyquant »

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.

You aren’t gonna be able to wrestle a full grown tiger it’s hard enough wrestling a Pitbull or Rottweiler.

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

#47

Post by 29athrowaway »

A mantis shrimp hits as hard as a 22 caliber bullet and can break reinforced glass. The hit of a mantis shrimp generates cavitation sonoluminiscence upon impact.

The pistol shrimp also uses cavitation sonoluminiscence. Its claw creates a bubble that upon collapse reaches 7,700 °C (2,200 °C hotter than the sun).

Researchers created a larger, 3d printed version of the claw that creates the same effect. https://tees.tamu.edu/news/2019/04/shrimp-claw-inspires-new-...

And video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOdRRjskWcc

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

#49

Post by waheoo »

chordalkeyboard wrote: post #37
anamexis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Threads like this cause the matrix to coredump.

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

#50

Post by trianglem »

learnstats2 wrote: post #39
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.

I spent this summer learning about the different mushroom in my area in as much depth as possible and it is incredible how little we know about most of them besides a name and very apparent superficial features.
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