Leaf-cutter ants have never seen before rocky crystal armor

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A new study shows that one Central American leaf-cutter ant species has natural armor that covers its exoskeleton. This shield-like coating is made of calcite with high levels of magnesium, a type found only in one other biological structure: sea urchin teeth, which can grind limestone.

Bones and teeth of many animals contain calciferous minerals, and crustaceans, such as crabs and lobsters, have mineralized shells and other body parts. But before this finding, no type of calcite had been found in any adult insect.

In leaf-cutter ants, this coating is made of thousands of tiny, plate-like crystals that harden their exoskeleton. This “armor” helps prevent the insects from losing limbs in battles with other ants and staves off fungal infections, according to a paper published November 24 in the journal Nature Communications.

The discovery is especially surprising because the ants are well known. “There are thousands of papers on leaf-cutter ants,” says study co-author Cameron Currie, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We were really excited to find [this in] one of the most well-studied insects in nature,” he says.

 

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Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/11/leaf-cutter-ants-have-strong-mineral-armor/

[PunkTheFunk 107,562]

Still no match for the bottom of my shoe

[Xoxo Adriana 13,649]

7 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said:

Still no match for the bottom of my shoe

hooman, please