The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth

Schultheiss, Patrick; Nooten, Sabine S.; Wang, Runxi; Wong, Mark K. L.; Brassard, François; Guénard, Benoit

doi:10.1073/pnas.2201550119

Cited by 94 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…For example, all orders of the class Mammalia combined constitute only ~6,500 species (Burgin et al 2018). Also, the combined biomass of all ant species alone exceeds the combined biomass of all wild bird and mammal species combined (Schultheiss et al 2022). The extreme diversity, biomass and wide global distributions of eusocial insects supports the conclusion that increased levels of TW increase the potential for niche-expansion.…”

Section: Up-mediated Tw Was Pivotal In the Evolution Of Up-paralife A...mentioning

confidence: 89%

The Origin of Non-biological ‘Paralife’ and its Coevolution with Biological Intelligence

Rice¹

2022

Preprint

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When animals evolve sufficient intelligence and dexterity to be able to learn to fabricate utility products (UPs) like tools, the UP's they produce become part of an induced-reproduction system that intrinsically shares many life-like traits with biological organisms, including genome-like fabrication and operation information that is physically-encoded in the animal fabricator’s neural networks. When this set of life- like traits includes a sufficient capacity for system-improving cultural evolution (UP-evolvability), the UPs become ‘para-alive’, i.e., nearly alive, or a form of non-biological UP-paralife that is equivalent to the life- status of biological viruses, plasmids, and transposons. In the companion paper I focus on the evolution of UP-paralife in the context of modern, language-capable humans and its predicted evolution going forward in time (Rice 2022). Here I look backward in time and focus on the origin of UP-paralife and its subsequent coevolution with human intelligence. I begin by determining the pathways leading to the evolution of large brains in the rare lineages of biological life that have sufficient intelligence to learn to fabricate tools –a critical first step in the evolution of UP-paralife. The simplest forms of these learning- based UPs, made by species like chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows, represent only proto-UP- paralife because they lack sufficient UP-evolvability. Expanded UP-evolvability required a combination of three attributes that enabled continuous niche-expansion of the animal fabricator via a new and advanced form of UP-mediated teamwork (TW): i) self-domestication that facilitated TW among low-related individuals, ii) learned volitional words (protolanguage) that represent ephemeral UPs that coordinate TW, and iii) learned fabrication of simple flaked-stone tools with cutting and chopping capabilities (a UP to make other structural UPs) that expanded teammate phenotypes and TW capabilities. This specific triad of attributes is synergistic because each one acts as a TW-enhancer that can gradually erode different components of the three major constraints on TW operation and expansion: too much selfishness, insufficient coordination signals, and insufficient physical traits of teammates. The increase in UP- evolvability was transformative and marked the origin of UP-paralife and the initiation of coevolution between UP-paralife (cultural evolution) and the intelligence of its hominin/human symbiont (genetic evolution) that fostered 2.5 million years of: i) continuous brain size increase and niche-expansion within the genus Homo, and ii) parallel advances in the diversity, complexity and uses of UP-paralife. This coevolution also fostered evolutionary expansion of word-based communication, and eventually language, that acted in a catalyst-like manner to facilitate the evolution of increasingly complex forms of imagination, reasoning, mentalizing, and UP-generating technology. I next focus on the evolution of creativity in the human lineage –in the form of divergent thinking and creative imagination. I conclude that the evolution of this advanced cognitive feature required a preadaptation of sufficient intelligence and is the component of human cognition that was the major causal factor generating the greatly expanded diversity and complexity of UP-paralife currently associated with modern humans. Lastly, I apply my findings to the issue of the prevalence of extraterrestrial intelligent life. I conclude that any exoplanets with detected chemical life will very rarely (e.g., probability ~10-5 for a planet closely matching Earth’s characteristics) have evolved intelligence equalling or exceeding that of humans.

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Section: Up-mediated Tw Was Pivotal In the Evolution Of Up-paralife A...mentioning

confidence: 89%

The Origin of Non-biological ‘Paralife’ and its Coevolution with Biological Intelligence

Rice¹

2022

Preprint

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“…Behavioral traits and associated phenotypic adaptations were central to the evolution of one of the most ecologically dominant invertebrate clades: the ants 3,11,12 . The ant phylogeny holds extreme diversity in ecology, morphology, life-history traits, but also in behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological change and conflict reduction led to the evolution of a transformative social behavior in ants

Meurville

Silvestro

LeBoeuf

2022

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Behavioral innovations can be ecologically transformative for lineages that perform them and for their associated communities. Many ecologically dominant, superorganismal, and speciose ant lineages use a mouth-to-mouth fluid exchange behavior - trophallaxis - to share both exogenously sourced and endogenously produced materials across their colonies, while lineages that are less abundant, less cooperative and less speciose tend not to perform this behavior. How and why this behavior evolved and fixed in only some ant lineages remains unclear and whether this trait enables ants' ecological dominance is not yet understood. Here we show that trophallaxis evolved in two major events ~110 Ma in lineages that today encompass 36% of ants, and in numerous smaller and more recent events. We found that trophallaxis evolved early only in ant lineages that had reduced intra-colonial conflict by losing workers ability to reproduce. Our causal models indicate that this signature behavior of superorganismal ants required social cooperation and ecological opportunism, and likely contributed to the large colony sizes and speciation patterns of the ants that use it and dominate our landscapes today. We hypothesize that the early evolution of trophallaxis was brought about by a major shift in terrestrial ecosystems through the origin and diversification of flowering plants and the consequent opportunistic inclusion of nectar and sap-sucker honeydew in the ant diet.

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“…Ants contribute to the conservation and proper operation of ecosystem by providing a number of ecological services and negative effects (Del Toro et al 2012). Estimated number of ants on Earth corresponds to 20×10 15 and biomass of almost 12 megatons (Schultheiss et al 2022). Ant abundance is irregularly distributed in Earth and peaks in the tropics (Kaspari et al 2004, Economo et al 2018, Kass et al 2022, Schultheiss et al 2022.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Estimated number of ants on Earth corresponds to 20×10 15 and biomass of almost 12 megatons (Schultheiss et al 2022). Ant abundance is irregularly distributed in Earth and peaks in the tropics (Kaspari et al 2004, Economo et al 2018, Kass et al 2022, Schultheiss et al 2022. The Himalayas and other biodiversity hotspots are locations that are crucial for preserving biodiversity globally (Norman 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generic and species richness of ant fauna in different provinces of Nepal (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Subedi

2022

Nep. J. Zool.

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Nepal, a part of the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, has a high diversity of habitat and species. Its myrmecofaunal diversity and distribution, however, is little understood. Here, I summarize the provincial distribution of all named species of ants for the seven provinces of Nepal through a literature review and examination of materials available at museum and private collections. The distribution of Nepalese ants in each province reveals that Bagmati province has the highest known generic and species richness with 37 genera and 93 species, followed by Gandaki (32, 68), Province 1 (27, 55), Sudurpashchim (15, 15), Lumbini (12, 13), Madhesh (9, 11), and Karnali (5, 5). The four of the seven provinces, Sudurpashchim, Karnali, Lumbini, and Madhesh have been significantly under sampled in the country in terms of documented species richness. Although the figures cannot accurately represent the real species richness of each province, I hope that by highlighting the research gaps, it will encourage further investigation.

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The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth

Cited by 94 publications

References 77 publications

The Origin of Non-biological ‘Paralife’ and its Coevolution with Biological Intelligence

The Origin of Non-biological ‘Paralife’ and its Coevolution with Biological Intelligence

Ecological change and conflict reduction led to the evolution of a transformative social behavior in ants

Generic and species richness of ant fauna in different provinces of Nepal (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

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