What is the Size of an Ants Brain?
WouterAmong the most striking differences between humans and ants is the size of their brains. The human brain is thought to have 86 billion neurons, whereas the ant brain is believed to have only 250,000 neurons.
It’s believed that human brains grew a few million years ago, and then suddenly decreased about 3,000 years ago. The researchers are looking for clues that might explain this mysterious decrease.
A team of researchers has proposed a new hypothesis. They propose that the reduction in brain size occurred earlier than previously thought, and that it was related to division of labour and food production.
The researchers used a change-point analysis to study the evolution of human crania, and also studied the brains of worker ants. The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
According to the researchers, the human brain grew in size 2.1 million years ago, but then suddenly decreased in size about 3,000 years ago. The researchers say that this decrease might have occurred due to the division of labour and the need for social connections.
Another study has found that ants’ visual centers make up only about two percent of the brain. The study also found that the volume of the optic lobes is not directly related to the total brain volume.
In the same study, the researchers found that the brains of leaf ants and trunk ants were both larger than the colonies they lived in. They also found that the size of the lateral calyx and lip of medial calyces was smaller in larger colonies.
