Sophisticated underground ant city discovered by a team of scientists

We are not the only great builders of this world, ants master this to.
The leafcutter ant builded this giant underground city.

Covers 15 meters and goes 8 meters down

A giant ant colony is pumped full of concrete, then excavated to reveal the complexity of its inner structure.

The abandoned megalopolis, which features vast subterranean highways, paths and gardens, was found buried beneath the earth in Brazil. It is thought to have housed one of the biggest ant colonies in the world. But no one is sure when the leafcutter species left and what caused their demise.

Each insect would have repeatedly carried loads of earth, weighing more times more than the worker, a distance of what would be just over half a mile in human terms. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

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Experts poured ten tonnes of concrete into holes on the surface – which served as air conditioning ducts for the ants – to expose the tunnels by solidifying in the space. It took ten days to pour the material down the labyrinth of channels, which covered an area of 500sq ft and extended to 26ft below the surface..

Source:
www.dailymail.co.uk...

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by Vandalour


I feel kinda bad for all the little ants that died when they poured all the plastic in.

Still, this is a fantastic cool project, albeit at the expense of the little ants.

How would this look if it was Alien scientists that did something similar to we humans?

ah perspective.

S&F for a cool find and video and post!

reply to post by nineix

The abandoned megalopolis, which features vast subterranean highways, paths and gardens, was found buried beneath the earth in Brazil.

Dont worry nobody was home

reply to post by nineix


It mentioned it was an abandoned ant nest...
any ant that died, would have died a rebel

Generally I don't mind a repeat post but wasn't this already posted two days ago? Still cool. I wish there was more information on the other nest they've found in the past two years.

reply to post by Vandalour


That is just incredible! Thank you for posting this...fascinating.

For anyone interested further in ants, I can fully recommend Julian Huxley's study. Remarkable creatures.

www.amazon.com...

reply to post by Biliverdin


thanks for the heads up, I have several ant farms, and have been fascinated by these being for a long long time!

I forgot all about that book until now!

cheers!

reply to post by TheOneEyedProphet


Have you read The Once and Future King by T H White? Merlyn transforms 'the Wart' into an ant to learn a lesson about warfare...it is what led me to read Huxley's study. I've always wanted an ant farm...but I am far too clumsy for it not to go terribly, terribly wrong...