What If Ants Were Our Size?
WouterSuppose you could scale up an ant to human size, what would it look like? Would the resulting body shape be suited for living? And would it actually be stronger?
A swarm of ants has been known to weigh in at 2.5 million tons. Its mass is comparable to the mass of all humans in the world. The number of distinct species of ants is approximately 14,000. The number of unique species of ants is a staggering 1.3 percent of the 750,000 species of insects on Earth.
Considering that most vertebrates require the use of lungs to obtain oxygen from the air, a swarm of ants would be able to take in vastly more oxygen than is needed. The ant’s body structure is not well suited for moving large amounts of body weight. The trachea and lungs in ants are not strong enough to support such a large body weight.
There is a plethora of information circulating about the human body, but the science of the human ant is still under debate. The ants have a great mechanical system, but the fact that they have a complete set of free muscles would be lost when they are scaled up to human size. They would still be able to breathe through their spiracles. However, they would suffer from the scaling issue that affects the legs.
The ants also have the distinction of being the smallest animal on Earth. Although the average ant weighs in at a mere 10 to 50 grams, their speed is impressive, reaching over 800 times body length a minute.
