Whales aren’t fish!

Because they have fins and flippers, you might think whales are big fish, but they’re actually mammals, just like us. And that means that they’re warm-blooded, they breathe air and that baby whales need their mothers’ milk to survive. And they even have hair! Before they’re born, a layer of fuzz covers whales. It’s called lanugo, and some even keep hair as adults. Sound familiar?

So, if they’re more akin to humans than fish, why do they live in the ocean? Around 50 million years ago, the ancestors of whales lived on the land. We know this by looking at whale skeletons. They don’t have legs, but they do have tiny hip bones left over from their prehistoric relatives. Evolution changed them, and these animals that used to hunt on land started hunting in water. Over time, they changed and adapted to an aquatic lifestyle.

These stunning creatures live in every ocean on the planet. You can find them in temperate oceans and tropical waters around the equator, as well as in the frigid Arctic and Antarctic oceans. Some whale species live in seas, including the North Sea and the Mediterranean.

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There are 2 types of whales

Over millions of years, the water – which gives more support to their humongous bodies than air does – has allowed them to grow into 92 different species of all shapes and sizes.

All whales are cetaceans, but there are two major types. One is the toothed whale (77 species) and the other one is the baleen whale (15 species). And, as you probably guessed, their differences can be found in their mouths. Some whales have teeth, while others have hairy structures called baleens.

Baleen whales

The giant brushes in baleen whales’ mouths act like a big sieve, filtering food out of the water. A favorite meal for baleen whales is one of the smallest animals in the ocean, a little crustacean called krill. These tiny creatures only grow to around 0.4 or 0.8 inches (1 or 2 centimeters) long. So obviously, whales need to eat a lot of them. In fact, they eat about 40 million krill a day! To give you an idea of how much that is, put five cows together, and you got it.

Some whales use bubble netting to feed. How clever! They cooperatively blow bubbles that encircle their prey. The prey won’t cross through the bubbles, trapping them, and making it easy for the whales to eat them.

When whales sense food ahead, they open their mouths, with some species stretching open to almost 90 degrees! And when they close their mouths, their giant tongues squeeze the water out through the baleen filters, leaving delicious food, such as plankton, inside.

Whales get iron from krill in the deep ocean. Then the krill waste (whale poop) floats to the surface and serves as a fertilizer for shallow ecosystems. This helps sequester 200,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year by fertilizing photosynthetic plankton.

Toothed whales

The toothed whale family includes the sperm whale, the all-white beluga whale and the narwhal with its incredible unicorn-like tusk. Toothed whales also eat fish, squid and crustaceans, but some, like the orcas (killer whales), hunt other mammals such as seals. They have even learned to launch themselves onto beaches to catch seals in the shallows. They may be one of the biggest predators in the ocean. But don’t worry, they don’t attack humans.

Whales breathe through their blowholes

Over the years, cetacean nostrils migrated back from snouts to the top of their heads. Baleen whales have two holes, while toothed whales have one. The purpose of having blowholes on top of their heads is for the convenience of not having to lift their entire head out of the water to take a breath. In fact, whales can’t breathe through their mouths.

Whales’ breathing is very efficient. And they have conscious control over their breathing and heart rate. They can regulate their oxygen levels, which is particularly important for deep-diving species. Once underwater, they can slow down their heart rate and shunt the oxygenated blood to needed areas, like their brain, heart and muscles. How long whales can hold their breath underwater depends on the species.

These gigantic animals expel air, not water, from their blowholes. When a whale goes back to the surface after an impressive breath hold, what you hear or see is them breathing out before they inhale and dive back underwater. As moist warm air from the whale’s lungs meets cold air outside, the moisture condenses into a cloud, like seeing your breath on a cold day. This cloud also includes mucus and droplets of seawater that were covering the blowhole when the whale exhaled. And you can even see whales producing rainbows.

The misconception that water comes out of a whale’s blowhole can be harmful. Dan Jarvis of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue describes instances of people finding a stranded whale and “pouring water directly into the blowhole thinking it’s a fish and it needs to be filled up with water.” Sadly, they have unintentionally killed the animal as a result.

Other parts of their anatomy

Because whales descended from animals with limbs, their backbones don’t naturally bend side to side, but rather up and down. That’s why their tail fins are horizontal, instead of vertical like fish. Even though they no longer have hind limbs, their hips aren’t completely gone in some species.

Whales don’t have external ears, and their ear canals are no longer open to the outside, but ear wax still builds up inside! When a whale dies, scientists can use this ear wax to study its diet and its hormone levels every year the whale was alive, like we do with tree rings! A Q-tip, anybody?

And even when whales die, they serve a purpose. When their heavy carcasses fall to the deep ocean, they can form mini ecosystems called whale falls, which sustain countless deep-sea species for decades.

Breaking records

There are many more incredible facts about these creatures. They’re the biggest living animals on Earth. The blue whale holds that record, weighing up to 400,000 pounds (182,000 kg or approximately 33 elephants) and reaching up to 98 feet (30 m) in length. But they smash other records, too.

The Cuvier’s beaked whale can hold its breath for two hours, the longest for any mammal. It’s also been tracked 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) below the surface. Check out this animation that shows how deep the ocean really is.

A bowhead whale is also the longest-lived mammal; it lives in northern Canada and has a natural life span of 268 years! So, it can be even older than the founding of the United States.

The sperm whale has the largest brain in the animal kingdom; it’s six times the size of a human’s. They are thought to be one of the most intelligent animals on Earth.

Humpback whales in the Southern Hemisphere live off their fat reserves for 5 1/2 to 7 1/2 months each year, as they migrate from their tropical breeding grounds to the Antarctic.

Whales and echolocation

Toothed whales like the sperm whales can communicate, navigate and hunt by using echolocation. These whales produce clicks in the nasal passages. Then they cross the melon (a spot in the forehead), and then the lower jaw picks up the returning echoes and delivers those vibrations back to the inner ear.

A beluga’s melon is generally more flexible compared to other whale species, and it can change in shape when the whale is producing sounds.

See an image of the process, here.

Did you know? Bats use echolocation, too.

Big brains, big voices

Baleen whales like humpbacks don’t use echolocation, but they are famous for their songs. And not any song; they’re very complex with short phrases combined into themes that can last for half an hour or more. They’re talented musicians.

Whale calls are the loudest of any creature on the planet and can be heard underwater for hundreds of miles/ kilometers.

We still don’t know how whales produce their sounds, but scientists think they use a big sac under their vocal cords to squeeze air into the larynx. And they also have huge lungs to hold the air and keep singing for a long, long time.

The Whale-SETI team has been studying humpback whale communication systems in an effort to develop what SETI researchers call “intelligence filters” in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Threatened

It’s estimated that there were over 225,000 Antarctic blue whales before their exploitation in the 1800s-1900s. Today, there are between 10,000 to 25,000 left in the world.

Despite all the amazing abilities whales have, for many years they’ve been heavily hunted by people, and some species remain close to extinction even today. But thanks to a global hunting ban in the 1960s, in the last few years the number of blue and humpback whales is finally starting to increase.

We hope to see these majestic creatures in the wild for many more years to come.

Thank you to the amazing photographers from Pexels and Unsplash.

Bottom line: Whales are not just the biggest animals on the planet, they have smashed other records, too. And they way they communicate and eat … Wow!

Read more the ocean sunfish, an odd, gentle giant, too.

The post Whales are the biggest living animals: Lifeform of the week first appeared on EarthSky.

Happy International Zebra Day! Here are some interesting facts about them you can share with your friends and family. Let’s celebrate their day together!

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A zebra’s stripes

Many people know zebras for their stripes. But are they black with white stripes, or white with black stripes? Well, it turns out that underneath their coats, they have black skin! So, if you shaved a zebra, it would look all black.

There are 3 types of zebras: Grévy’s zebra, mountain zebra and plains zebra, which has a further 6 subspecies. Each species has a different stripe pattern. And not only that, every pattern is unique, like human fingerprints, making each individual one of a kind.

Zebras have a built-in bug repellent

You might wish to look like a zebra, because their black-and-white striped pattern is a bug repellent! What better natural way to avoid insect bites? The Royal Society published a study on August 19, 2020, where researchers recorded and reconstructed tabanid fly behavior around horses wearing differently patterned rugs. They found flies avoided landing on, flew faster near, and did not approach striped and checked patterns compared to the solid-colored models. So, if you want to avoid pests, dress in high-contrast clothing, like a zebra. See? No pesticides needed.

Another cool feature of a zebra’s coat is that zebras can bunch together to confuse colorblind predators. Lions, for example, see the pattern and confuse it with grass. Also, zebras are one of the few mammals that can see in color, except for orange.

The daily lives of zebras

Zebras are herbivorous and can live for 25 years. They’re fairly short at 3.5 to 5 feet (106 to 152 cm) tall and 5 to 7 feet (146 to 217 cm) long. But zebras can run up to 40 miles per hour (65 kph)!

A group of zebras is called a zeal. When faced by predators, they form a semicircle and nip or attack the predators if they get close. If Zebras have to run because they are being chased by a predator, they zigzag, making it more difficult for the predator to get to them. They also encircle an injured member of the family to protect it from attacks.

Mama zebras keep their foals from all the other zebras for two or three days until the foal can recognize her scent, voice and appearance.

Zebras don’t usually lie down to sleep; they prefer to sleep standing up.

And did you know? They can rotate their ears in almost any direction. They use this ability to communicate their mood to other zebras. Erect ears indicate calm, ears straining forward denote fear, and ears flattened back indicate anger. For example, if the lead male zebra (or stallion) lays his ears back, watch out! It’s a sign of aggression.

Where are zebras from?

Zebras come from the Equidae family. They evolved around 50 million years ago; they were small, multi-toed ungulates and became larger, single-toed animals. So, their legs are each supported by a single spade-shaped toe covered in a hard hoof. Their teeth are adapted for grazing; they have large incisors that clip grass blades and rough molars and premolars well suited for grinding.

These beautiful creatures live in Africa, in treeless grasslands and savannah woodlands. However, their habitat is shrinking, and they’re already extinct in two of the countries to which they’re native (Lesotho and Burundi). Zebras don’t live in deserts, wetlands or rainforests.

An endangered animal

Hunting is the primary cause of the decline of zebras. They are primarily hunted for their striking skins. Also, habitat loss in an already restricted range is a serious threat. They have to compete for resources with other grazers, as well as cattle and livestock. Due to overgrazing and competition for water, juveniles have a low survival rate. The Grévy’s zebra is the rarest of the three species. Over the past years, it’s faced a population decline of 54% from an estimated population of 5,800 in the 1980s. The population today is about 2,800, adding this species to the Red List of Threatened Species.

Bottom line: Happy International Zebra Day! Let’s use this day to raise awareness about these fantastic creatures and their endangered condition.

Adopt a zebra

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The ocean sunfish or Mola mola is a large and odd-looking fish. They’re surely one of the weirdest looking fish in the ocean. But, you know, normal is boring, so we love them as they are! It’s certainly one of my favorite fish, ever since I first saw this enormous, unique animal at the Oceanografic in Valencia, Spain. I was impressed after seeing a fish bigger than I am, and I’m 5’8″ (1.73 m) tall!

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What are ocean sunfish?

This enormous animal is the heaviest bony fish in the world. For years, many people believed that this huge fish got energy from the sun. How else could it get so big?! That’s how it got its name. You can see these fish flopping around at the surface of the sea. In Spanish, they’re called “peces luna” or moonfish. According to a legend, when fishermen went fishing in the night, they got confused and thought these gray-white fish were the reflection of the moon in the water.

So, they love the surface, but they also get stuck there … And, who can blame them? They are huge and have no pelvic fin. They do have a back fin, though, but it never grows. Large specimens can reach 14 feet (4 m) vertically and 10 feet (3 m) from mouth to fan-shaped “tail.” And they can weigh nearly 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg). The largest ever discovered was 6,050 pounds (2,750 kg). It was 12 feet (3.6 m) tall and 10.5 feet (3.2 m) long.

There are five species of ocean sunfish: The Mola mola, the Mola alexandrine, the Mola tecta, the sharp-tailed mola, and the slender mola. You can find them worldwide in the open ocean of tropical and temperate seas. Although they might look ancient or prehistoric, the truth is they’re newcomers to our planet. The first fish on Earth emerged over 500 million years ago, but the Molidae family emerged only 50 million years ago. In fact, molas are one of the most recent fish to appear in the sea.

What do they look like?

To some, this fish looks like half its body is missing. Some people nickname them swimming heads. To me, they look like the bullets from Super Mario; remember them? Their spines are truncated and don’t have ribs. Their back fins never grow; instead, they fold on themselves. This creates a round section at the back of the body, called a clavis. They also lack a pelvic fin. And their pectoral fins are small and round; they’re tiny if you compare them with the massive dorsal and anal fins.

One of the most surprising things about the mola is that it doesn’t have any axial muscles. In other fish, these muscles run down the length of the body and are used to flex the body laterally (side to side). They also allow the fish to swim forward. So, without these essential muscles, how do sunfish even swim? They have enlarged muscles around their dorsal and anal fins, which flap simultaneously, propelling the fish forward while their bodies remain almost completely rigid.

There is something curious about their main fins. They’re symmetrical, while in other fish, they’re asymmetrical. And also, although the fins’ structure is similar to that of other ocean flyers such as manta rays, penguins or turtles, sunfish are the only aquatic vertebrates with their wings in a vertical orientation.

Curious things about the ocean sunfish

It’s a weird animal, but does it move properly? It does! Sunfish can cruise at around 1.8 miles per hour (3 kph). So, not really fast, but they do their job. Also, as their fins are so big, they don’t need to flap fast or many times to create a lot of thrust. And sunfish can dive deep to search for prey during the day or to escape predators.

Their skin is very different from other fish, too. They don’t have scales; these fish are covered by a thick hypodermis that is inflexible and rubbery. It’s made up of collagen and elastin. We could even say this skin serves them as an exoskeleton to protect against sharks, sea lions and orcas.

Ocean sunfish can jump out of the sea and slam their bodies back into the water. In this way, they dislodge parasites from their skin. The poor things have so many parasites that even their parasites can have parasites. While on the surface, they allow birds to pull parasites from their skin. They also visit reef environments to give other fish a chance at the buffet. They’re such good big brothers! The reason they have all these parasites is because of their low speed.

What do they eat?

Sunfish migrate toward cooler waters in spring and summer to follow their prey of zooplankton. They also eat algae, small fish, squids, crustaceans, brittle stars and jellyfish. You don’t like jellyfish and their stings? Well, then these are your perfect buddies, as they quite like jellyfish.

Ocean sunfish have a beak-like mouth. They don’t chew their food; they push it back and forth through their beaks to break up their prey and swallow the smallest pieces. Of course, plastic is a huge threat to these peaceful animals, as it can lead to suffocation or starvation. The ocean sunfish always have their mouths open. These fish are unable to close them, and not because they are talkative; in fact, they are quite serene and solitary.

But that doesn’t stop them from having a large family. Female ocean sunfish can produce over 300,000,000 eggs at a time. Their larvae look like little spiky balls. As they grow, they develop the swimming head and lose the spikes.

Have you ever seen these gentle giants? They can live for more than 100 years. You have a friend for life in them.

Our thanks to the amazing photographers from Wikipedia.

Bottom line: Because normal is boring, we love this large and odd-looking fish! Read more about ocean sunfish, the gentle giants.

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The post Ocean sunfish are odd, gentle giants: Lifeform of the week first appeared on EarthSky.

The 2024 lunar calendars are here! Best New Year’s gifts in the universe! Check ’em out here.

A year of young moons

Adeel Shafiq in Pakistan patiently created this photo composite showcasing young moons from every month of the year in 2023. Young moons are those that appear in the evenings just after new moon phase. You can spot them just after sunset, in the glow of twilight. These slender crescents, from hours old to a couple days old, show just a wafer-thin reflection of the sun’s light.

Adeel described his path to capture the 12 young moons of 2023:

I embarked on a journey at the start of the year (2023) to capture each young moon, which was a tough ask given the amount of dust pollution over the horizons and cloudy weather during monsoon season in summers from Lahore, Pakistan. I had been chasing the thinnest of crescents for almost more than two years. Each time I try to better my own record of capturing the least-illuminated moon. It’s one of those exercises that tests not only your knowledge about the horizon, twilight and the ecliptic but – most importantly – your patience. The youngest crescent moon I captured was 22 hours old and at 1% illumination.

How did Adeel do it?

Adeel shared the specifics of how he captured the 12 images of a young crescent moon and combined them into the beautiful composite image above. Adeel said:

I took all images during the twilight period shortly after sunset with my Samyang 135mm f/2.2 lens attached to a Canon 1300D camera. And I cropped all images with same resolution without any de-rotation or resizing. Each moon image is a single image with post-processing done in Photoshop. I also created this collage with the help of Photoshop 2023.

Well worth your year of effort. Thanks, Adeel!

Bottom line: A young moon is when a thin crescent appears in the evening sky just after new moon. Enjoy this beautiful composite image of the 12 young moons of 2023.

The post See a year of young moons in this photo composite first appeared on EarthSky.

Whether you did or didn’t see this week’s Geminid meteor shower … you’ll enjoy these stunning images of the shower, from around the world. Thank you to all EarthSky community members who submitted – and are still submitting – photos. Visit EarthSky’s community photo page for more. And submit your photo here.

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Best Geminid meteors images

More Geminids images

More stunning images

More Geminid meteors

And last but not least …

Bottom line: See the best photos of the Geminid meteor shower of 2023 from our talented community of photographers.

The post Geminid meteor shower 2023: Cool photos! first appeared on EarthSky.

An expedition to see emperor penguins

EarthSky friend Eliot Herman took a trip to the Antarctic in late November. After more than 30 hours of flights, he and his wife reached Antarctica, where they got to observe a resident colony of emperor penguins. He shared his fantastic photos with us, and reported from the southern reaches of the world:

We flew to the interior and landed on an ice runway, then to a camp and finally ski-plane to the emperor penguin colony at Atka Bay. With reports of the penguins having reproductive problems, I was concerned about what I would see. The colony we saw had a large population of healthy chubby chicks. A photographer’s dream trip.

Eliot said the travel to get to and from Antarctica was long, but one he has wanted to do for many years. He said:

Seeing the emperors is special, few people do, only a very few of the cruise boats have a chance to go that deep into the Weddell Sea. They often fail, so the number of tourists who see the emperors each year cannot be more than 100 to 200.

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Photos of the expedition

More emperor penguins

The heroes of the trip

See more images of the expedition at Eliot’s Flickr page

Read more on why emperor penguins are endangered

Bottom line: EarthSky friend Eliot Herman took a trip to the Antarctic, where he had the opportunity to visit emperor penguins in their colony. Read his report and enjoy his amazing images.

The post Emperor penguins: A report from the Antarctic first appeared on EarthSky.

Best deep-sky photos from our community

The EarthSky community has many talented astrophotographers who capture stunning images of the deep sky. So enjoy this gallery of some of the best deep-sky photos we have received in October. Do you have some of your own best deep-sky images to share? You can submit them to us here. We love to see them!

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Diffuse nebulae

More deep-sky photos of nebulae

The Orion Nebula

A wide-field view of the constellation Orion

Deep-sky photos of the Ghost of Cassiopeia

The Horsehead Nebula

A galaxy and a star cluster

Bottom line: Enjoy this gallery of the best deep-sky photos of October 2023 from our EarthSky community. And if you have a great photo to share, send it in. We love to see them!

Share your recent Earth or sky photo at EarthSky Community Photos.

The post Deep-sky photos October 2023: Editor’s picks first appeared on EarthSky.

What animal has pointy teeth, is more active at night, and sleeps hanging upside down? You guessed it! A bat.

What are bats?

Many people think of these little animals as dangerous bloodsuckers, like fictional vampires. But there are 1,400 species of bats in the world. Most eat insects, fruits and fish. Only three species of bats feed solely on blood. Not bat, I mean, not bad!

Most bats are small mammals, but there are surprisingly large species too. The largest is the flying fox or Pteropus. It’s a megabat ranging from 4 to 56 ounces (120 to 1,600 grams). Its wingspan is nearly 5 feet (1 1/2 meters).

The smallest is the Kitti’s hog-nosed bat (aka bumblebee bat). This species is about 1.1 to 1.3 inches (27 to 33 mm) in length, and 0.071 ounces (2 grams) in mass, making it the world’s smallest mammal. And speaking of insects, bats are incredible pollinators, too. While insects pollinate flowers during the day, our furry friends pollinate during the night.

If you like bananas, avocados and mangoes, thank a bat. And if you find mosquitoes annoying, well, bats are your best ally. Night insects have the most to fear from bats, as bats are extremely valuable in controlling insect pests. A common bat can eat over 3,000 bugs in just one night. Wow, bon appétit!

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Curious things about bats

Bats have many unique features. For instance, bats are the only mammals that can fly. Yes, we might be mammals ourselves, but we don’t count when traveling by planes or hot air balloons. No cheating!

A bat’s wing resembles a modified human hand. Imagine the skin between your fingers larger, thinner and stretched. This flexible skin membrane that extends between each long finger bone and many movable joints makes bats agile fliers. They are quite fast, too, as they can reach speeds over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h).

And, did you know? We have unique fingertips, and so do they! Well . . . the only difference is that their distinctive prints are in their wings.

Where do they live?

Bats can be found on nearly every part of the planet, except in extreme deserts and polar regions. Before daytime comes, they seek shelter to rest. Bats love caves because they have high ceilings where they can hang. But also, roofs keep them safe from many predators that hunt on the ground.

Some caves can have colonies of up to 20 million bats. But don’t worry. Baby bats won’t get lost among the crowd. Their wings are not the only thing that make them unique. Their voices and scents are also individual! This way, moms can easily find their babies. They have voice recognition, and what is even more impressive, they can navigate by echolocation. This means they can “see” using sounds.

Most bats hibernate, but some of them migrate to warmer areas in search for food.

Vampire bats

Like other mammals, mother bats feed their pups breastmilk, not insects. Most bats give birth to a single pup. Mama bats form nursery colonies in spring in caves, dead trees and rock crevices.

Only three species drink blood. But, no, their teeth are not like straws. What they do is bite another mammal, or sometimes birds, and then lick the blood with their tongues. But don’t worry about their victims, as bats don’t remove enough blood to harm them. Also, this little wound is so subtle that it can sometimes be undetected.

Bats are not only good in the dark sky, but it turns out that they are pretty good on the ground, too. Actually, that’s how vampire bats hunt. They move on the ground and then attack a warm spot to find their victims, with a kind of heat sensor on their noses.

And, did you know? They have anticoagulant in their saliva to help them with their liquid diet. So, they don’t kill their prey, but they can provoke nasty infections and diseases. If you ever find a bat, don’t touch it, as it can carry rabies. Bats are the leading cause of rabies deaths in the U.S.

Bat’s life

It’s said that the smaller the animal, the shorter its lifespan, but bats break that rule of longevity. Most bats live less than 20 years in the wild, but scientists have documented six species that can live more than 30 years. The longest-living bat was judged to be 41 years old; it was a tough old guy from Siberia.

Far from being dirty, bats spend a lot of time grooming themselves. Some even groom each other. They do this because cleaning helps control parasites.

Bats have few natural predators, like owls, hawks and snakes. What has killed millions of bats is the white-nose syndrome, named for a white fungus on the muzzle and wings of bats. This disease affects hibernating bats. Scientists are still working to understand the disease.

At least 12 types of U.S. bats are endangered, and more are threatened. These amazing animals face a multitude of threats including habitat loss and disease.

It’s a pity, as bats have inspired medical marvels. About 80 medicines come from plants that rely on bats for their survival. Also, by studying how bats use echolocation, scientists have developed navigational aids for blind people. Research on bats has also led to advances in vaccines. We could say that, like Batman, bats are the heroes of the night!

Bottom line: Bats might be spooky, but they pollinate flowers, control insect pests, and have inspired scientists around the world to improve human lives in many ways.

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The post Bats, a spooky season icon, are our lifeform of the week first appeared on EarthSky.

Wow. The solar eclipse photos from last Saturday (October 14, 2023) still haven’t stopped coming in. Here are a few more great ones! Thanks to all who contributed to EarthSky Community Photos!

Click here to see our earlier October 14 solar eclipse gallery.
Submit your photo here.

The 2024 lunar calendars are here! Best Christmas gifts in the universe! Check ’em out here.

Solar eclipse photos in composites

The ring of fire

Indirect viewing, and solar binoculars

Solar eclipse photos of stunning landscapes

Family fun

Partial solar eclipse photos

Fun on campus

More ways to see the eclipse

Bottom line: Solar eclipse photos from last Saturday (October 14, 2023) are still coming in. Here are more great ones. Thanks to all who contributed to EarthSky Community Photos!

The post Solar eclipse photos keep coming, and they’re awesome first appeared on EarthSky.

Ants are common insects, but they have some unique capabilities. For example, they have legendary communication skills that allow their colonies to function as superorganisms.

We are newbies in the animal kingdom, but ants have been living since the Cretaceous, arising some 140 to 168 million years ago. Individually, ants are the longest-lived insects. Unlike some bugs that might only live for days or even hours, the queen ant of one particular species – the Pogonomyrmex Owyheei – can live up to 30 years.

There are 20 quadrillion ants on Earth. That’s 2.5 million ants for every human. Ants are members of the family Formicidae. There are more than 12,000 species, and some experts estimate 20,000 exist.

They can be found almost anywhere in the world, with the exception of Antarctica, Iceland, Greenland and some island nations.

Ants’ appearance

Ants range in size from minuscule up to 1 inch (3 cm) long. They are usually black, brown, red or yellow.

These insects don’t have ears, and some of them don’t have eyes! Ants “listen” by feeling vibrations from the ground through their feet, and eyeless ants such as the driver ant species can communicate by using their antennae.

These little creatures have elbowed antennae and narrow “waists” between the abdomen and thorax. Some ants have wings. Their front wings are longer than their hind wings. The presence of wings indicates an ant’s fertility. Ants with wings are either females that are fertile or males whose job it is to mate with them.

Members of the colony

In a colony, you can find females (workers or queens) and males. While females are diploid (hatched from fertilized eggs, hence possessing two sets of chromosomes, one from the mother and one from her male mate), males are haploid (hatched from unfertilized eggs, hence have just one set of chromosomes, from the mother). Thus, males do not have a father.

Queens are reproductive females that are fully winged in most species.
Workers are non-reproductive (sterile) females that are always wingless. They form the bulk of individuals within a colony.
Males are fully winged (mostly). They are generally present within a colony for only a short time each year and typically live a few weeks, dying very soon after mating.

Typical cycle for a worker ant

Egg: Laid in the ant colony and looked after by other workers.
Larva: Once it emerges from the egg, the larva then begins to develop.
Adult: It can take around 6-10 weeks for an ant to reach the adult stage.

For the queen in any colony, their lifespan may last up to around 15 years, while the worker ants live for roughly seven years. This is, of course, if they can avoid predators and other dangers.

Most of the ants a person sees are female. Male ants, also called “drones,’ do not perform any work in the colony. Their only job is to fertilize the queen ant so she can lay eggs and support the population in the nest.

What are their characteristics?

The ant is one of the world’s strongest creatures in relation to its size. A single ant can carry 50 times its own body weight, and they’ll even work together to move bigger objects as a group!

Ants hold the record for the fastest movement in the animal kingdom. A species of trap jaw ant can close its jaws at 140 mph (125 kph), which it uses to kill its prey or injure predators.

The largest ant nest ever found was more than 3,700 miles (6,000 km) wide. Found in Argentina in 2000, the enormous colony housed 33 ant populations that had merged into one giant supercolony, with millions of nests and billions of workers.

Ants’ behavior and diet

As social insects, ants live in structured nest communities that may be located underground, in ground-level mounds or in trees.

A single ant colony can contain hundreds of thousands of individual ants. Communities are headed by a queen or queens; some species can have as few as two or up to thousands of queens. Queens lay thousands of eggs to ensure the survival of the colony.

Worker ants, the most visible colony members, are females that never reproduce, but instead forage for food, care for the queen’s offspring, work on the nest, and protect the community.

These insects communicate and cooperate by secreting pheromones, or scent chemicals, released through their body to send messages to other ants. They send out warnings when danger’s near, leave trails of pheremones leading to food sources and even use them to attract a mate, like a love potion. How romantic!

They typically eat nectar, seeds, fungus or insects. However, some species have diets that are more unusual. Army ants, with their large mandibles and painful stings, may prey on reptiles, birds or even small mammals.

Ant colonies are so efficient that they can pass useful knowledge between generations. This kind of communal knowledge is essential for defense, so ants can easily differentiate friendly and hostile forces.

An amazing social system

Ants dispose of their dead. They even have undertakers to do this. When an ant dies inside the nest, they carry the body outside to prevent diseases and infections from spreading and affecting the rest of the colony. When an ant dies, its scent changes because the corpse releases something called oleic acid. Other ants detect this new chemical and carry the corpse.

Ants teach their young. As social insects, they have a very advanced system. This way, each group has a specialty, like foraging, cleaning or caretaking of eggs and baby ants.

What’s really interesting is that they’re not born with special skills. They do what we humans do; they learn from those around them. There are teachers that show them how to do a task, and if they are too slow or lack that talent, then they must do another job that doesn’t require special abilities.

How a colony begins

Ants can harvest, herd and milk. They actually started farming before we did, 50 million years ago. Before moving out of her birth nest, a young queen must sneak inside the garden she used to live in to take away some seeds and fungal pellets to start her own garden and feed her brood.

So, she takes a blob of fungus in her mouth, taken from the established fungal garden she used to live in, and leaps in the air for a mating flight, gathering enough sperm to keep laying eggs for the rest of her life, which can be as long as 10 years. Then she lands, sheds her wings, finds a burrow in the ground, and starts a new colony.

She spits out her fungal blob, and it begins to grow. The queen lays her eggs in the fungus. The larvae feed on it, and once the first worker ants hatch, they help the queen to tend the garden.

Eco-friendly ants

Ants use herbicides and disinfectant in their fungal gardens. But their substances are far more eco-friendly than human-made ones. The fungal gardens they grow are also home to a virulent type of fungus that kills the fungal crops, preventing them from spreading.

Ants have bacteria at their disposal; they carry them on their cuticles (the hard outer layer they have instead of skin). These bacteria produce an antibiotic that suppresses the growth of the fungal weed. In their nests, they use several substances that inhibit the spread of parasites or weeds.

Leafcutter ants are industrious creatures known for expertly carving up foliage and then carrying it back in pieces to their colony. They use the leaves to farm fungus.

Several species of ants have a special symbiotic relationship with aphids. Aphids feed primarily on the sap from plants and secrete a liquid called honeydew. This secretion is very sugar-rich, and ants crave it. It’s a great food source.

As a result, a system has been hashed out by these insects wherein the ants herd the aphids around to the juiciest parts of plants, protect them from predators, and carry them into their nests at night and for winter. In return, they are allowed to “milk” the aphids, tapping the aphids with their antennae, coaxing them to secrete their honeydew, which is then lapped up by the ant. The little bugs are considered pests by every farmer on Earth, except for their friendly six-legged keepers, the herder ants, which treat the bugs as their dairy cows.

Underground cities

Ants build amazingly complex and stable structures. From the outside, you might only see a hole disappearing into the ground, but beneath the surface, there are many tunnels, branches and chambers that serve as home for the colony’s queen, as nurseries for the young, as farms for fungus cultivated for food, and as trash dumps. They are underground cities, some of them home to millions of individuals, reaching as far as 25 feet (8 meters) underground, often lasting for decades.

This kind of construction would be an impressive undertaking for most creatures, but when performed by animals that don’t get much bigger than your fingernail, it is especially remarkable.

Watch this amazing video of an excavation of an underground ant city.

Unusual ants

Within the many thousands of known ant species, there are many that are unique, resulting in the development of special physical characteristics and interesting behavior.

For example, ants have a variety of biological defenses. Fire ants might be little, but they bite and sting with a venom called solenopsin, which causes a burning sensation, hence the name “fire ant.” They can also survive floods by clumping together to float on the water’s surface.

Other species, like the Pheidole drogon, have evolved to grow spikes or spines from their exoskeletons.

One Amazon species, the Allomerus decemarticulatus, cooperatively builds extensive traps from plant fiber. When an insect steps on one of the trap’s many holes, hundreds of ants inside use the openings to seize it with their jaws.

The bullet ant is said to have the most painful sting in the world. Living in humid jungle areas such as the Amazon, their sting has been compared to being hit by a bullet.

Culture and history

Ants can be used to stitch up wounds. Minor wounds are normally just annoying, with advanced medicine a call away. But imagine you’re in the middle of nowhere and with no first-aid kit or hospital. Then you could use the army ants’ strong pincers. In Maasai tribes, they have the ant bite on both sides of the wound, break off its body and leave behind the head. It can mean the difference between life and death when no other resources are available.

Thank you to the amazing photographers from Pexels, Unsplash and Wikipedia.

Bottom line: Ants are common insects with unique capabilities. They can be found almost anywhere in the world and can harvest, herd and milk. They can also build amazingly complex and stable underground cities.

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