Biocomplexity Unit News Today

An ant (species: Ectatomma tuberculatum) photographed in Costa Rica. Ants make up a large fraction of the total animal biomass in most terrestrial ecosystems, but researchers say that an understanding of their global diversity is lacking. This new study provides a high-resolution map that estimates

/PRNewswire/ -- A team of international researchers is shining a light on the often understudied "little things that run the world" — ants. With the help of...

With the help of cutting-edge technology, the researchers created a first-of-its-kind global biodiversity map to begin answering a long unanswered question about where ants can be found worldwide.

New global diversity maps of ant populations have been produced, showing areas that are promising for finding as yet unknown species.

They are hunters, farmers, harvesters, gliders, herders, weavers and carpenters. They are ants, and they are a big part of our world, comprising more than 14,000 species and a large fraction of animal biomass in most terrestrial ecosystems. Like other invertebrates, ants play vital roles in the f

Credit: Image by Katerina Zapfe The kangaskhan, Australias only species of endemic Pokemon in Pokemon Go, is commonly poached within its natural habitat by Pokemon trainers for use in fighting contests Researchers used several species distribution modeling algorithms to predict how climate change, on top of the already existing human-induced pressures, would impact the distribution of the kangaskhan in the future In addition to this, they found a way to measure how biased commonly used sp...

Trap-jaw ants are infamous for having one of the strongest bites among all animals, but we didn’t really understand how they evolved from more traditional jaws. A new study looking at their evolutionary history found that the distinctive mechanism behind trap-jaws has evolved independently several times across the globe. Unlike normal gripping jaws, which open and close through the contraction of muscles, trap-jaws use a complex mechanism to latch themselves open and clamp down when needed. T...