The Leaf Cutter Ants of Palenque

Deep in the Chiapas rainforest rises the ancient Mayan city-state of Palenque. Beneath the pyramids, the ground rumbles and roils as thousands of leaf-cutter ants build an underground city of their own. These spectacular creatures act as a super-organism, each doing the bidding of the colony as a whole. The ants bring bits of leaves and flowers back to their nest. They masticate them and innoculate the mash with fungal spores and bits of fungal cells. The fungi that grow on the rotting leaves provide food for the ants and are, in turn, nurtured as a domesticated organism. Recently, scientists found that the ants also use a cyanobacterium as part of their farming technique. These photosynthetic bacteria add nitrogen to the environment and provide extra nutrients for the colony. A great example of biological complexity and multiple symbioses at the microscopic scale!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• symbiosis
• ants
• leafcutters
• palenque
• rainforest
• cyanobacteria
• fungi

[mermaids14]

oh sam hammer, how i miss thee!

your name came up tonight in my LA methods and material classes....one of my fellow classmates mentioned his botany class and i asked - "do you have sam hammer?!"...we both agreed you're the BEST TEACHER EVER!!!!

how i wish every class for the rest of my life could be like yours.....so fun, interesting, passionate, informative, exciting, FABULOUS!

i do hope all is well with you and that someday our paths will once again cross....martini and jazz, perhaps?...mwah!

[SamuelHammer]

What a nice nice note. I hope LA meth and matl is going well!!!!

LOL

hammie

[JulianaKTeamS]

Very Interesting.  I did not know how strong ants were.

- Juliana Klein

[laxnjordz4]

Its funny because it looks like the leaves are walking! Very cool

-Jordie Lopez

[sdixonbu]

great video

must have been awesome to see

Sean Dixon

[rageaholicgtr]

Wild video hammy. These ants have amazing strength and coordination. I wonder what their nest looks like after they are all done??

-James B

[FarinTeamS]

It's so neat how they carry leaves that are so much larger than they are!

- Nicole Farin and Lindsay Kaplan

[915irenem]

They move so fast!

[Lindsaya1289]

I like how the leaves are bigger than they are and yet they still have such a rhythmic way about them!

[NewmanTeamS]

those ants have long legs!

-Erica N

[tropicalsnow17]

thats pretty cool!

-Victoria H

[GrondinTeamS]

this video is wicked cool... cant believe you actually got up close to see their tiny bodies!

Thanks Hammie for always thinking of fun things to show us!

Daisy