Post Aie9kt7YVhv5kQO2L2 by vanderZwan@vis.social
(DIR) More posts by vanderZwan@vis.social
(DIR) Post #AidSLGtJDNLduaGHNg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T01:26:27Z
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How did ants become farmers of fungi? I want to suggest that the behaviors found in nearly every species of ant centered around nest building, and maintaining gradients of temperature and humidity within their nest to raise their young were transferable to fungi farming. Ants that practice "higher agriculture*" keep their brood and eggs inside of the fungal sponge. It's not just food, it's a nursery, the fungi and larvae enjoy the same humidity levels. 1/
(DIR) Post #AidSfnqqNYlpvZtmm8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T01:30:09Z
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"Higher agriculture" means that the ants are obligate fungivores and the fungi are a domesticated crop that can only grown when cultivated by ants. Many ants do "a little light gardening" opportunistically taking advantage of edible fungi in their nests. I wonder if the piles of silk cocoons that my carpenter ants keep, or the strange piles of odd leaf bits in isolated chambers are a kind of victory garden?My carpenter ants have "proto repletes" why not proto fungi gardens too? 2/
(DIR) Post #AidSrZnYSBtPolySzw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T01:32:17Z
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One of my colonies has decided they like an improvised dirt nest as much as they like the fancy human-made nest I bought them and are using both... It's a little annoying, but I must remember they they know best. My only qualm about letting them have a full terrarium is how their population would explode. The dirt nest is as much dirt as it is ants, it's a remarkable structure. With a whole tank of dirt I seem myself needing to feed a one-pound colony soon. 3/3
(DIR) Post #AidUSNT9M7X6FTXfhA by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T01:50:03Z
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@aadmaa Check this out!https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/112555596554177410
(DIR) Post #AidVgtd6gEIc08gbqa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T02:03:53Z
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@echanda TOO MANY
(DIR) Post #AidXcWoDmjF1yRviPQ by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2024-06-06T02:25:34Z
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@futurebird If they start signalling "feed me, seymour" with their antennae don't do it
(DIR) Post #Aie87szYxKku6GUEUq by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T09:14:38Z
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@futurebird some fungi decided that taking control of ant bodies and exploding ant heads was too cruel and felt better ideas were needed ...
(DIR) Post #Aie8gyaI9hTxa1OmDA by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T09:20:59Z
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@llewelly Something about the arthropod body plan, without blood vessels, but rather the whole body filled with hemolymph makes them very vulnerable to fungal infections and parasites. Their body is all one big container, so it can spread and access all of the organs of the body.It seems harder for this to happen to even very small mammals. We are also protected by the way our bodies passively maintain temperatures different from the surrounding environment. This lets us kill pathogens.
(DIR) Post #Aie8yLoN3Dg8XZGjBI by vriesk@hachyderm.io
2024-06-06T09:24:06Z
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@futurebird @llewelly There is this hypotheis that the mammalian and avian body temperature is a bit too high for fungi to be happy - and that's why the only species quite suspectible to severe fungal infections are bats, which hibernate while lowering their body temperature quite a bit.https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1002808
(DIR) Post #Aie9D46f9yClyOqDJI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T09:26:46Z
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@llewelly "Unlike us humans, like many vertebrates, have passive automatic body processes that maintain their temperature without any thinking or planning on the part of the human required. It is perhaps our daily struggle to keep our nests and young ones warm or cool that has allowed us to evolve to be the more intelligent and far superior species."- Intergalactic Ant Encyclopedia of Life, Vol. 238, entry on "evolutionary biology of ant intelligence"
(DIR) Post #Aie9kt7YVhv5kQO2L2 by vanderZwan@vis.social
2024-06-06T09:32:50Z
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@futurebird @llewelly you're kind of making it sound like ants evolving fungi agriculture may have been the evolutionary equivalent of domesticating a zombie apocalypse.
(DIR) Post #AieA91kc4m3jSmALui by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T09:37:15Z
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@vanderZwan @llewelly Can't beat 'em? Join 'em!If they eat you? Make so they can't survive without you. Tie your fates together and turn the tables on those parasites.
(DIR) Post #AieKMdz6EbVpLh4cTo by vanderZwan@vis.social
2024-06-06T11:31:45Z
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@futurebird has fungal farming evolved only once in ants, or multiple times? And if multiple times, could anything be learned from the commonalities?
(DIR) Post #AieKWiSmRC1Y8Rl8NM by Mabande@mastodon.social
2024-06-06T11:33:34Z
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@futurebird @vanderZwan @llewelly wait who's the parasite in this scenario?
(DIR) Post #AieVXS5ftZHr8qVOEq by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T11:39:28Z
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@Mabande @futurebird @vanderZwan about 25 years ago, I read a weird essay by an evolutionary biologist (sadly I can't recall who) which argued that so much of human society is organized to maximize the growth and fitness of grains like rice, wheat, and corn, that they had domesticated us rather than the other way around, and the domestication of humans by grains was the most successful trait any group of plants had ever evolved.
(DIR) Post #AietqlysZ6aBEU4YJU by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T17:20:50Z
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@vriesk @futurebird I feel like I should link the episode of Common Descent in which they were asked about this hypothesis, and expressed skepticism, for some good reasons, but unfortunately I can't figure out which episode it is.
(DIR) Post #AietqnSh3k1dpF1sQK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T18:09:22Z
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@llewelly @vriesk I’m super curious if you remember…
(DIR) Post #AietqoTRISDSxqNzE0 by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T17:21:05Z
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@vriesk @futurebird One notable problem is that squamates are actually more speciose than mammals, despite being ectothermic in nearly all cases. This points to the larger problem: the paper assumes a particular definition for "dominance", a definition which is human-centered. Another problem is that insects have done also very well in the Cenozoic, and they are all ectothermic.
(DIR) Post #AietxAAxWRXe0cln7Y by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T18:10:29Z
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@violet @llewelly @Mabande @vanderZwan grass is a kleptoparasite !
(DIR) Post #AieuO3twxT24MtdlBY by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-06-06T18:15:20Z
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@futurebird @vriesk I just found the episode of common descent where they answer a listener question about the fungi hypothesis, but if you are referring to the essay on grains domesticating humans I mentioned much earlier, no, I don't remember, sorry.