The Ants Have It

Ants have mastered the art of cooperation.  They have highly organized social structures, caste systems, and with everything they do, they do for the colony.  They are in a sense, a superorganism with each ant contributing to benefit of colony, like cells in a functioning body.

Evolution Talk is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of EvolutionTalk.com, or call your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy.

Works Cited

Boomsma, Jacobus. “The Brainy Origin of Superorganismal Development.” Ecology & Evolution Community, 2 Sept. 2020, ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/40176-the-brainy-origin-of-superorganismal-development.

Dorit, Robert. “The Superorganism Revolution.” American Scientist, 2014, www.americanscientist.org/article/the-superorganism-revolution. Accessed 19 Aug. 2023.

Keim, Brandon. “Superorganism as Window Into Complexity and Evolution.” WIRED, 14 Feb. 2008, www.wired.com/2008/02/superorganism-a.

Mirsky, Steve. “Individual Versus Group in Natural Selection.” Scientific American, 18 Dec. 2008, www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-good-for-the-group/#:~:text=Yet%20Charles%20Darwin%20himself%20argued,level%20was%20on%20the%20outs.

Pull, Christopher D., and Dino P. McMahon. “Superorganism Immunity: A Major Transition in Immune System Evolution.” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 8, Frontiers Media, June 2020, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00186.

Quanta Magazine. “Edward O. Wilson on the Evolution of Social Behaviors.” YouTube, 15 May 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY8m68w_ehg.

Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers. “Them! (1954) Official Trailer #1 – Sci-Fi Horror Movie.” YouTube, 23 Oct. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4URRp39XOo.

Web of Stories – Life Stories of Remarkable People. “EO Wilson – ‘The Ants’ (7/15).” YouTube, 10 Oct. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu-0TvGmC6w.

Wilson, David Sloan, and Edward O. Wilson. “Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology.” The Quarterly Review of Biology, vol. 82, no. 4, University of Chicago Press, Dec. 2007, pp. 327–48. https://doi.org/10.1086/522809.

Music in this Episode Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology news

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