Researchers have made the most thorough assessment to date of the global population of ants, and the estimated total is a mind-blowing 20 quadrillion of them, or approximately 2.5 million for every human.
FILE PHOTO: - PHOTO TAKEN 12JAN06 - A Leaf-cutting Ant carries a leaf with another ant at La S..WASHINGTON - The world's human population is forecast to surpass 8 billion in the coming months. Compared to ants, that is a mediocre milestone.
"Ants certainly play a very central role in almost every terrestrial ecosystem," said entomologist Patrick Schultheiss of the University of Würzburg in Germany and the University of Hong Kong, co-lead author of the study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ants, whose closest relatives are bees and wasps, are native to nearly everywhere on Earth, as any picnicker knows, except Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland and some island nations. "Our dataset represents a massive collecting effort of thousands of scientists. We were then able to extrapolate the number of ants for different regions of the world and estimate their total global number and biomass," Schultheiss said.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
There are 20,000,000,000,000,000 ants crawling all over EarthA new study estimates there are 20 quadrillion individual ants across the globe, which together weigh more than all wild birds and mammals combined
Read more »
Earth hosts 20 quadrillion ants — studyThere are more than 15,700 named species and subspecies of ants that are found all over the planet, and probably an equal number that have yet to be described.
Read more »
Aces beat Sun for first WNBA title, Chelsea Gray named MVPChelsea Gray scored 20 points to lead the Las Vegas Aces to their first WNBA title.
Read more »
Jets score two late touchdowns for stunning win over BrownsRobert Saleh is going to want to keep the receipt from this one.
Read more »
The Queer Energy in 'House of the Dragon' Wasn't Just In Your HeadIf you’re sensing romantic tension between HotD's Rhaenyra and Alicent, you’re probably right.
Read more »