This is the estimated number of ants worldwide

Have you ever wondered how many ants there are in this world? When food crumbs fall, the number of these little insects can be countless.

But, don’t be disappointed just yet. Because in this world it turns out that there are scientists who estimate how many ants there are in the world.

Citing detikInet from IFLScience, based on the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022, the number of ants on Earth is 20 quadrillion.

One quadrillion equals one thousand (1,000) trillion. meaning that 20 quadrillion equals 20,000 trillion. To reach their conclusions, researchers combined data from nearly 500 studies of insect diversity across all continents, major biomes and habitats.

In fact, the numbers from that study were twice as high as the rough estimate published in 1994. This was the first scientific attempt to estimate the number of ants.

After knowing the approximate number of ants in the world, a new question arises, how many ants are there in the world together?

Their total biomass is estimated at 12 megatons. This load is still 20% of the biomass of everyone on Earth.

Moving on to the third question, when did ants first appear?

Ants appeared between 140 and 168 million years ago, according to a 2006 study. This situation gave rise to many forms of life, including dinosaurs.

It is believed that ants evolved at this time because this was the time when flowering plants appeared. This provides enough food for small insects to allow them to grow and reproduce.

This article was published on detikInet

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