How does an ant use its mandibles? (BioE80 Spr2015)
May 25, 2015 • 11:37 PM UTC
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ariskare
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After folding our origami microscopes, we followed Dr. Prakash and decided to explore living organisms. We were both interested in insects and how they use their mandibles to chew and eat food. After close inspection of surrounding patches of dirt and grass, we were able to find an ant and prepared it in a slide. Initially, we thought we killed the tiny organism, but luckily it was alive, and this was proven when we saw its two tiny, pincer-like mandibles moving back and forth.
Both me and my lab partner thought that the mandibles moved together at the same time, but under the foldscope, we saw something entirely different.
Ant_Video
Amazingly, the mandibles moved independentl y from each other. We believe this is possible for a variety of reasons. For one thing, ants use their jaws in a massive amount of activities. Food processing, hunting, defense, carrying capacity, and transportation are vital areas that require incredibly specialized mandibles to get the job done. Because the mandibles are specialized to each species of ant, we hypothesize that they have the ability to move independently because they play such a crucial role to the organism and each have a large amount of strength.
We can draw parallels from the ant’s mandibles to our hands. We use our hands in almost every aspect of our daily lives. If we were not able to move our hands independently from one another, we would be constrained in almost every activity that kept us alive. We wouldn’t be able to drive cars, communicate over cell phones, cut our food, write, type, etc. Maybe, the ant’s mandibles follow a similar rule; because they are so important to the ant’s survival, independent movement aides in the diverse actions the organism can execute. Quite possibly, the ant gained this independence over millions of years of evolution, and this could easily explain why it has prospered over time.
Further magnification showed that there were tiny hairs and teeth on the ant’s maxilla, a structure that lies directly below the ant’s mandibles. The maxilla is used in food processing and helps aid in eating when the ant is consuming food. When used in conjunction with the mandibles, we hypothesize that the maxilla further breaks down food particles so that the ant can pass them into its body. While this was not the primary focus of our investigation, we found it quite interesting as it moved back and forth whenever the mandibles were being used. This structure too moved independently of the mandibles, but was found to move in conjunction with both mandibles for the majority of the time observed.
We were very interested in the ant’s mandibles, and decided to research other uses/structures of the mandible. We came across this site, http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=2482, that showed several variations of the mandible. Some were hairy, others were long, others greatly curved, and a few even overlapping! The next question we asked was, “Why is there so much diversity in a structure that serves the same major purposes across thousands of different species?”.
One hypothesis we came to was that different mandible structures could be attributed to different environments. Much like Darwin’s finches, the ants might need to transport different materials (stones, sticks, sand, dirt), might need to consume different foods (plants, other organism), or might need to fend off stronger enemies (different exoskeletons, attack mechanisms, etc). In fact, there can a plethora of sound reasons why an ant needs different mandibles — we have already established that this structure is crucial to its survival, so of course, given the external environment, the ant will adapt as necessary and modify its greatest tool of all, the mandibles.
Further research could involve moving to different areas to asses the mandibles of several species. The ant we find in patch of dirt will me immensely different from the one found in some sand or grass. The same applies for weather and humidity. Thanks to efficiency and ease of the foldscope, this experiment can be done with ease, and we look forward to delving deeper into the function of mandibles across different species. We extend out greatest thanks to Dr. Prakash for the help and inspiration with this powerful, pocket tool, and additionally to the TA’s that helped us in our discoveries!
Best,
Aris Kare and Richie Hojel
Both me and my lab partner thought that the mandibles moved together at the same time, but under the foldscope, we saw something entirely different.
Ant_Video
Amazingly, the mandibles moved independentl y from each other. We believe this is possible for a variety of reasons. For one thing, ants use their jaws in a massive amount of activities. Food processing, hunting, defense, carrying capacity, and transportation are vital areas that require incredibly specialized mandibles to get the job done. Because the mandibles are specialized to each species of ant, we hypothesize that they have the ability to move independently because they play such a crucial role to the organism and each have a large amount of strength.
We can draw parallels from the ant’s mandibles to our hands. We use our hands in almost every aspect of our daily lives. If we were not able to move our hands independently from one another, we would be constrained in almost every activity that kept us alive. We wouldn’t be able to drive cars, communicate over cell phones, cut our food, write, type, etc. Maybe, the ant’s mandibles follow a similar rule; because they are so important to the ant’s survival, independent movement aides in the diverse actions the organism can execute. Quite possibly, the ant gained this independence over millions of years of evolution, and this could easily explain why it has prospered over time.
Further magnification showed that there were tiny hairs and teeth on the ant’s maxilla, a structure that lies directly below the ant’s mandibles. The maxilla is used in food processing and helps aid in eating when the ant is consuming food. When used in conjunction with the mandibles, we hypothesize that the maxilla further breaks down food particles so that the ant can pass them into its body. While this was not the primary focus of our investigation, we found it quite interesting as it moved back and forth whenever the mandibles were being used. This structure too moved independently of the mandibles, but was found to move in conjunction with both mandibles for the majority of the time observed.
We were very interested in the ant’s mandibles, and decided to research other uses/structures of the mandible. We came across this site, http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=2482, that showed several variations of the mandible. Some were hairy, others were long, others greatly curved, and a few even overlapping! The next question we asked was, “Why is there so much diversity in a structure that serves the same major purposes across thousands of different species?”.
One hypothesis we came to was that different mandible structures could be attributed to different environments. Much like Darwin’s finches, the ants might need to transport different materials (stones, sticks, sand, dirt), might need to consume different foods (plants, other organism), or might need to fend off stronger enemies (different exoskeletons, attack mechanisms, etc). In fact, there can a plethora of sound reasons why an ant needs different mandibles — we have already established that this structure is crucial to its survival, so of course, given the external environment, the ant will adapt as necessary and modify its greatest tool of all, the mandibles.
Further research could involve moving to different areas to asses the mandibles of several species. The ant we find in patch of dirt will me immensely different from the one found in some sand or grass. The same applies for weather and humidity. Thanks to efficiency and ease of the foldscope, this experiment can be done with ease, and we look forward to delving deeper into the function of mandibles across different species. We extend out greatest thanks to Dr. Prakash for the help and inspiration with this powerful, pocket tool, and additionally to the TA’s that helped us in our discoveries!
Best,
Aris Kare and Richie Hojel
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