Episode
Civilized Ants
- Podcast
- EarthDate
- Published
- May 14, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 120
- Processing state
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- https://blubrry.com/3957418/153852833/civilized-ants/
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Summary
There are only four creatures on Earth that tend crops: humans, weevils, termites and, most successfully of all, ants. Around 10,000 years ago, humans switched from being nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers. The food surplus allowed us to develop civilization. But ants beat us to it, becoming “civilized” 60 million years before then. Scientists think it may have been after the Chicxulub asteroid, when darkened skies meant fewer plants, that ants began to rely on fungus. Soon after, leaf cutter ants began to grow their own fungus, gathering organic material and bringing it into their nests to feed their crops. And soon after that, they became codependent. Leaf cutters could only eat their specially grown fungus. And the fungus could only survive when dutifully tended by the ants. To accomplish this, the ant colony evolved into classes. Large foragers cut and gather the leaves. Smaller gardeners chew them into the mash that feeds the fungus. Still smaller ants tend the fungus and spread natural antibiotics, from pits on their exoskeletons, to control parasitic bacteria that live on the fungus. Thriving this way, a single colony can contain millions of ants, tending hundreds of chambers, dozens of feet deep into the ground. Lessons in cooperation that perhaps our human communities could learn from. Though very few of us would want to live on fungus alone.