Natural History Wanderings

CNN  reported

A new estimate for the total number of ants burrowing and buzzing on Earth comes to a whopping total of nearly 20 quadrillion individuals.

That staggering sum — 20,000,000,000,000,000, or 20,000 trillion — reveals ants’ astonishing ubiquity even as scientists grow concerned a possible mass die off of insects could upend ecosystems.

The estimated abundance of ants exceeds the combined biomass — that is, the total mass — of wild birds and mammals and is equivalent to about 20% of human biomass, according to the study.

Read full article at Scientists have estimated how many ants there are on Earth. Clue: It’s a lot