Awe Inspiring Giant Ant Hill Excavated

Originally posted by Quasar_La-Zar
S&F

That documentary was amazing to say the least, and the lifeboat of ants is unimaginable unless you watched that.

I wish humans had a better sense of smell and could lay trails down, that would make working 1000x times easier lol.

& I don't think they would just pour concrete into something like that unless they were sure it is uninhabited.

But even if they did, its ashamed, but thats life, some creature can just come along at any second and end your entire world, be it ants, or us.

Thank you so much for your reply Quasar_La-Zar im glad you enjoyed the thread..

Originally posted by sugarcookie1
Check this out

Highways, ventilation systems, rubbish pits and gardens are all parts of a typical community, yet this megacity is far from human. This natural wonder was constructed by an ant collective, and the scientists who excavated it poured ten tons of cement into the structure to discover the mysteries it held.

Peace sugarcookie1

Amazing!
Now imagine you have a spaceship and you are on your way to discover alien civilizations~
You stumble upon a planet that has big giant ant like creatures that behave and build EXACTLY the same way the ants on Earth we know they do. Now imagine THERE ARE NO ants back on Earth so you won't recognize what this new discovery you made actually is but also lets imagine these ant like beings are also bipeds! That would fool about anyone believing that since these creatures can build cities, have a social structure and are bipeds, there's no question, they MUST BE intelligent just like humans!

You would have think that you just discovered an intelligent alien civilization wouldn't you?
Not to mention that humans would spend decades upon decades and billions upon billions to make these creatures behave intelligently just like us but to no avail!

Ants can have cities and social structure but they can't be intelligent.

What is the REAL definition of Intelligence?

Wow imagine when humanity gets their $h!t together and work together as one planet how much we can create and evolve??.....ants showing humanity how to do it.....who's intelligent now?

Originally posted by jude11
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

I hate bugs but scientists doing this killed billions of ants and destroyed a wonder that most likely took years to build, in order to satisfy their curiosity.

Doesn't seem right. IMO

I don't think you realize how many ants are in the world.

Killing billions of ants is like taking a blood sample from a single Human, in the name of science.

reply to post by Dungbeetle


Heres some info for you about the senses of ants

heres how ants comunicate
science.jrank.org...


and Ants are first animal known to navigate by stereo smell Desert ants in Tunisia smell in stereo, sensing odours from two different directions at the same time.news.bbc.co.uk...

Originally posted by WakeupUK
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

I heard somewhere that ants are the most successful species on Earth. Far more successful than humans. Thinks about their numbers. There are colonies everywhere. Maybe not all as big as this one but each will will have thousands. In my street alone there must be at least 20 colonies. So from that, think how many ants are on earth. Tens or maybe even hundreds of billions.

Then look at how they work together. There is one type that I saw on a documentary where they got into trouble on a river and to stop them from drowning they all linked together an formed a sort of raft. They floated to safety and survived to see another day. Intelligent or what?

Awesome creatures that in many ways put us to shame.

I have to admit there very smart in many ways they do put us as humans to shame..I think i have millions right here in my yard every summer so much for going barefoot..

Originally posted by ghostrecon
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

So is every ant colony like this or are they different depending on the type of ant?

I think there diffrent like in size above and under ground but dont quote me on that..

Originally posted by Cassperssoapbox

Originally posted by Flying Sorcerer
S&F for sure! This is truly awesome!

For those interested here is the full documentary

edit on 23/4/11 by Flying Sorcerer because: to enter the correct video code as I am retarded

This kept me glued to my computer along with two small children . I only wish man could work together as a team , the world would be a better place to live . My grand children and I thank you for posting this .

You are very welcome Cassperssoapbox, im glad you and the grand kids like it i would have loved to watch the kids faces when they saw the size of that anthill !

Originally posted by AceWombat04
What I find most fascinating about things like this is that they're good examples of how emergent behavior can result in incredibly complex structures and designs. We're used to thinking in terms of individually intelligent beings when we ponder things like extraterrestrial intelligence. But what if there were an extremely evolved species which, on the individual level, wasn't particularly intelligent, didn't have language, mathematics, or technology in the sense we think of it, etc. yet simply as a byproduct of their behavior, something resembling technology could emerge?

We can see how here something resembling a "city" can emerge from insect behavior. What if a species with individual intelligence analogous to the ant was well adapted enough that it dominated its planet eventually, and then through its natural behavior eventually gave rise to a collective intelligence that could actually produce things that to us would look technologically advanced, but from their "perspective" would simply be the result of their behavior and its affect on their environment?

Thats a fascinating but scarey thought i suppose anything is possible i have a very open mind to that sorta thing thanks for your input

I have often wondered if such a thing would be possible, and how different the ecology of a planet that gave rise to such life might have to be from our own.

Originally posted by spacebot

Originally posted by sugarcookie1
Check this out

Highways, ventilation systems, rubbish pits and gardens are all parts of a typical community, yet this megacity is far from human. This natural wonder was constructed by an ant collective, and the scientists who excavated it poured ten tons of cement into the structure to discover the mysteries it held.

Peace sugarcookie1

Amazing!
Now imagine you have a spaceship and you are on your way to discover alien civilizations~
You stumble upon a planet that has big giant ant like creatures that behave and build EXACTLY the same way the ants on Earth we know they do. Now imagine THERE ARE NO ants back on Earth so you won't recognize what this new discovery you made actually is but also lets imagine these ant like beings are also bipeds! That would fool about anyone believing that since these creatures can build cities, have a social structure and are bipeds, there's no question, they MUST BE intelligent just like humans!

You would have think that you just discovered an intelligent alien civilization wouldn't you?
Not to mention that humans would spend decades upon decades and billions upon billions to make these creatures behave intelligently just like us but to no avail!

Ants can have cities and social structure but they can't be intelligent.

What is the REAL definition of Intelligence?

edit on 24-4-2011 by spacebot because: (no reason given)

woah you have a great imagination! i have to ponder on that one i think the ant is very intelligent who knows maybe that alien civilization is out there maybe there here already under ground

Originally posted by free_spirit_earth
Wow imagine when humanity gets their $h!t together and work together as one planet how much we can create and evolve??.....ants showing humanity how to do it.....who's intelligent now?

sure makes one wonder dont it thanks for posting

Originally posted by SaturnFX

Originally posted by Dungbeetle
wow , that is amazing , its very interesting to see this , i wonder how they communicate with each other . and keep in mind they do all of this while being in the dark . wow

Their visual abilitys is exceptionally limited, however, they have very advanced sense of smell and touch.

As far as the greater communication of direction, well, the whole colony acts like a brain..each ant is designed biologically to serve as a single function and the overall hive mind will direct the proper ants via scent trail to that specific duty where it needs to be preformed.

Now, in saying that...they are not fully dronelike...they do have chambers for social aspects, they drink nectar off of certain insects (beetles) they harvest. and such in these chambers to get "drunk" and touch/feel one another (party..woohoo).

Ants also "bury" their dead (by that, they basically toss them in a specific chamber designed for ant corpses and other trash), they go to war with rival nests..and get this...they enslave ants from rival colonys (egg stealing, bringing back to your colony and making the rival ant offspring work for them under grim conditions) Ant Slavers

Yes, before you start thinking ant life is super advanced and loving, you might want to read up about their full social lifestyles
pure (working) communism, extremeist warfare, standardized enslavement for life (no abe lincoln saying we should free em), etc.

Brutal, yet a beautiful thing to study. (followed by giving them a grim cement death if possible)

SaturnFX thanks for your input on the thread

Originally posted by Lionhearte

Originally posted by jude11
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

I hate bugs but scientists doing this killed billions of ants and destroyed a wonder that most likely took years to build, in order to satisfy their curiosity.

Doesn't seem right. IMO

I don't think you realize how many ants are in the world.


Killing billions of ants is like taking a blood sample from a single Human, in the name of science.

I wasnt born yesterday i realize how many ants are in the world but as i stated this hive was empty no murder went on..

For those upset over the poor ants, wow, really? Hope you sleep well at night knowing how many billions of bacteria and single cell organisms you slaughter everytime you wash your hands or body with soap and hot water. They're ants,,, last time I checked there was certainly no shortage of them. Also it's not like this was some overly remarkable for the ages achievement these ants uniquely constructed. Virtually every ant colony creates something as impressive, some moreso. (Not saying this isn't amazing, it certainly is, I'm just saying this is representative of millions of other ant colonies. Humanity built 1 Great Wall of China... ants have built millions of nests.)

To the OP: Thank you for sharing this!

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
For those upset over the poor ants, wow, really? Hope you sleep well at night knowing how many billions of bacteria and single cell organisms you slaughter everytime you wash your hands or body with soap and hot water. They're ants,,, last time I checked there was certainly no shortage of them. Also it's not like this was some overly remarkable for the ages achievement these ants uniquely constructed. Virtually every ant colony creates something as impressive, some moreso. (Not saying this isn't amazing, it certainly is, I'm just saying this is representative of millions of other ant colonies. Humanity built 1 Great Wall of China... ants have built millions of nests.)

To the OP: Thank you for sharing this!

I was surprised at how many people were upset over the ants even though the hive was empty except for a few lone ants..I have enough in my yard to make up for any shortages..thank you for posting burdman30ott6

Another example as to how amazing God truly is.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
For those upset over the poor ants, wow, really? Hope you sleep well at night knowing how many billions of bacteria and single cell organisms you slaughter everytime you wash your hands or body with soap and hot water.

-cries considering all the dead and dying bacteria babies...-
Why you say that just as I emerged from a shower!!!

Humanity built 1 Great Wall of China... ants have built millions of nests.)

-rubs temples-

man we suck.

I should hire them to build me a bunker

Originally posted by BeenieWeenie
Another example as to how amazing God truly is.

I believe the ants pray to Klaatu


or it could be this guy:

EPIC!! Thx for sharing