...Ants Weigh as Much as Humans.

Well, not directly. If you were to take the weight of all the ants on earth, it would weigh the same as all of the humans on earth. Pretty crazy, I think. If I were to make a top ten list of the most fascinating animals, Ants would be on it.

That shit still makes me cry.

Easiest way to do this is to list off a bunch of facts:
-They evolved from wasps and bees a very long time ago. 130 million years or so.
-They are social insects and each ant has a set and specific role to play in the colony.
-They operate as a superorganism. Each ant operating to better the colony as a whole not its own self-interests.
-Studies have shown some species have rudimentary forms of agriculture.
-They are found practically everywhere! Except for Antarctica and a few very remote islands.
-They don't have lungs (like many insects I just discovered) and oxygen passes through their exoskeleton.
-Their pheromones are incredible. They leave scent trails to food sources. When one dies  by being crushed it emits an 'emergency' scent that tells other ants danger is close. They also inform other ants what their job is (drone, warrior, defender, etc.)
-There are an estimated 22,000 species of ant with only a little over half that have been identified. There are about 10,000 trillion of them. Bonus: There are about 27x as many termites on earth. Meaning all the termites weigh much more than all the humans. They are the largest single contributer to CO2 levels in our atmoshpere.

In short they are pretty cool. If you have time watch this.

Or this



But if you are only going to watch one, make it this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-gIx7LXcQM&feature=related

Can't get video to embed.

And that is what I learned today.

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED:
-My spelling and grammar might be coming out weird on this thing. Sorry, I'm usually pretty good. But considering the site www.blogger.com says 'blog' isn't a word, the spell check hasn't been reliable.