This video was made in partnership with Popsci! They recently published their "Muscles" issue, and wrote an article to go along with this video that you can read here: https://popsci.com/environment/strongest-animal-by-weight
Elephants might be strong, but they are weak compared to ants because ants have certain advantages that allow them to outlift their larger competitors.
LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Exoskeleton: a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals, especially arthropods, providing both support and protection.
- Endoskeleton: an internal skeleton, such as the bony or cartilaginous skeleton of vertebrates.
- Leverage: the exertion of force by means of a lever or an object used in the manner of a lever.
- Square-cube law: a mathematical principle, applied in a variety of scientific fields, which describes the relationship between the volume and the surface area as a shape's size increases or decreases.
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CREDITS
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Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Sarah Berman & Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
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REFERENCES
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Aaron, S. F. “The Muscular Power of Insects.” Scientific American, vol. 147, no. 3, 1932, pp. 148–150, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24966025
Bretscher, Heidi, and Michael B. O’Connor. “The Role of Muscle in Insect Energy Homeostasis.” Frontiers in Physiology, vol. 11, 22 Oct. 2020, p. 580687, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7649811/, https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.580687
Burd, M. “Body Size Effects on Locomotion and Load Carriage in the Highly Polymorphic Leaf-Cutting Ants Atta Colombica and Atta Cephalotes.” Behavioral Ecology, vol. 11, no. 2, 1 Mar. 2000, pp. 125–131, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/11.2.125.
Harrison, Jon F., et al. “How Locusts Breathe.” Physiology, vol. 28, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 18–27, https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00043.2012
“Insect Respiration - Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES).” Amentsoc.org, 2019, http://www.amentsoc.org/insects/fact-files/respiration.html
Molting and the Exoskeleton: A Double-Edged Sword - Understanding Evolution. 10 May 2021, http://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-arthropod-story/an-evolutionary-constraint-small-size/molting-and-the-exoskeleton-a-double-edged-sword/
Nguyen, Vienny, et al. “The Exoskeletal Structure and Tensile Loading Behavior of an Ant Neck Joint.” Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 47, no. 2, Jan. 2014, pp. 497–504, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2013.10.053.
Reinhold Hustert, and M Baldus. “Ballistic Movements of Jumping Legs Implemented as Variable Components of Cricket Behaviour.” The Journal of Experimental Biology, 1 Dec. 2010, https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.043943
Rospars, Jean-Pierre, and Nicole Meyer-Vernet. “Force per Cross-Sectional Area from Molecules to Muscles: A General Property of Biological Motors.” Royal Society Open Science, vol. 3, no. 7, 20 July 2016, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160313
Segre, Paolo S., and Ebony D. Taylor. “Large Ants Do Not Carry Their Fair Share: Maximal Load-Carrying Performance of Leaf-Cutter Ants (Atta Cephalotes).” The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 222, no. 12, 28 May 2019, p. jeb199240, https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.199240
staff, Science X. “Breathing Easy: When It Comes to Oxygen, a Bug’s Life Is Full of It.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 29 Apr. 2007, https://phys.org/news/2007-04-easy-oxygen-bug-life-full.html
Sutton, Gregory P. “Animal Biomechanics: A New Silent Partner in the Control of Motion.” Current Biology, vol. 23, no. 15, Aug. 2013, pp. R651–R652, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.06.052
Tajiri, Reiko, et al. “Joint Morphology in the Insect Leg: Evolutionary History Inferred from Notch Loss-of-Function Phenotypes in Drosophila.” Development, vol. 138, no. 21, 1 Nov. 2011, pp. 4621–4626, https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.067330