The ants in the ant dance video are entertaining, but they're also some of the most impressive creatures on Earth. Here are twenty facts about the tiny dancers you've been watching on loop.
1. Ants can carry up to 50 times their own body weight. 2. They never have lungs — air flows through tiny holes in their bodies. 3. They have two stomachs, one for themselves and one for sharing. 4. Ants don't have ears; they hear through vibrations. 5. Some ant species can survive floods by forming rafts with their bodies.
6. A colony can contain millions of ants. 7. Ants farm fungus and keep 'livestock' in the form of aphids. 8. They use pheromones to communicate everything from danger to directions. 9. Some species build nests with built-in air conditioning. 10. Ant colonies have been known to wage organized wars against rival colonies.
11. Ants evolved over 100 million years ago, alongside the dinosaurs. 12. There are more than 12,000 known ant species. 13. Scientists estimate there are over 20 quadrillion ants on Earth — about 2.5 million per human. 14. Ants exist on every continent except Antarctica. 15. The largest ant colony ever found spanned over 3,700 miles.
16. Worker ants can live up to several years; queens can live for decades. 17. Some queen ants can produce millions of offspring in a lifetime. 18. Ants sleep through power naps rather than long rest. 19. An ant's brain has around 250,000 neurons, yet colonies solve problems no single ant could. 20. And yes — when they move together, they can genuinely look like the world's smallest dance troupe.