Ant-y Social: How Tiny Ants Can Answer Big Questions about the Origins of Civilization (2 of 2) (IMAGE)

Princeton University

Ant-y Social: How Tiny Ants Can Answer Big Questions about the Origins of Civilization (2 of 2)

Caption

Researchers at Princeton and Rockefeller Universities investigated ant colonies to look at the relationship between group size and social behaviors. They found that simply increasing group size, even if it doesn't lead to division of labor, can benefit members of the group. Clonal raider ants, like those seen here, form a dense cluster in which ants care for the offspring while others sporadically leave the cluster to forage. Researchers in Daniel Kronauer's lab at Rockefeller University marked the ants with individual paint tags for automated behavioral tracking.

Credit

Daniel Kronauer, Rockefeller University

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