The amazing abilities of ants

Ants are pretty amazing creatures I think and their societies are amazingly complex. Now it has emerged that ants have a sort of inbuilt pedometer that allows them to know exactly how far they've travelled. Amazing things.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5128604.stm

[bruce]

Ants are wonderful creatures. Never fail to amaze me how smart they are.

[mellow_hendrix]

Bit of a bloody cruel experiment the dude did though. I mean chopping half their legs off and putting some of them on stilts so their stride patterns are all messed up

From TFA, the video of the ant with stilts (worth a watch):

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/av/dn94 36.mpg

Thought it was pretty neat; the ant begins to look like a spider with the longer legs. The video didn't seem to have any additional bearing to the study, though. You'd need to read TFA for how the stilts helped in their conclusion.

[reality]

Gotta love entemology havn't you. One of the few zoological fields were you can chop off your subjects legs without needing to sign any legal paperwork!

[tracy]

Many beach/land crabs use the same system. They also have built-in abilities to make calculations on the quickest diagonal path to their burrow - ie the pythagorean theorem. One guy did some experiments where he would do things to mess up the step count of the crabs to their burrows, and they always were displaced by the exactly difference in step count. The crabs have no idea where their burrow is or what it looks like, they just know how to walk there. It must be the same in ants.

[scary]

Originally Posted by mellow_hendrix

Bit of a bloody cruel experiment the dude did though.

Ants have no central nervous system and are virtually mindless. They are, essentially, automated drones pre-programmed with a simple set of instructions. The same goes for most invertebrates, which is why I don't have to complete an ethical assessment and don't need a home office licence for all of my research with crabs, worms, mussels, etc. Its not cruel at all.

[Thais]

The link to the video tells me the page has been moved Anyone got another link?

Researchers recently discovered that ants not only work hard and are prepared to lay down their lives for their fellow ants, they also take bigger risks for the good of the colony as they get older – and they can even assess how much time they have left in life.

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_te...ce=rss_science

I just love ants, incredible things

Originally Posted by veetermon

Researchers recently discovered that ants not only work hard and are prepared to lay down their lives for their fellow ants, they also take bigger risks for the good of the colony as they get older – and they can even assess how much time they have left in life.

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_te...ce=rss_science

I just love ants, incredible things

Age based instinctual behavior does not indicated an awareness of mortality.