Who's the strongest superhero? Thor? Superman? The Hulk?
How about Ant-Man?! Ants are true superheroes. These teensy-weensy critters are like the strongman at the circus. They can out-lift even the largest animals, lifting the equivalent of their own body weight many times over. According to National Geographic, an ant can carry 50 times its own weight!
Think about this for a moment. Can you imagine an elephant lifting 50 other elephants in size? Elephants are the land animals that can lift the greatest weight. But they can reportedly only carry 10 to 25 percent of their own body weight. And what about us? Humans would need to be able to lift thousands of pounds to go toe to toe with ants in the pound for pound lifting game.
So why are ants so strong? Since they are so small and light, their muscles do not have to work very hard to support their own weight. That makes it easier to lift heavy things. An ant's exoskeleton helps support the ant's weight. This frees up the ant's muscles to perform superhero feats of strength.
Research shows that ants also have very strong neck joints. An ant's neck can withstand a lot of pressure—up to 5000 times their own weight! Ants carry things with their jaws and use that super strong neck to help them lift things over their heads.
Ants are so strong that even scientists are inspired. Learning how ants can lift such heavy loads may help them design robots that can do the same. Do you think scientists will ever be able to build an Ant-Man robot?
Image source: "A leaf-cutter ant worker carries a leaf fragment back to her colony by Jarrod Scott" by dullhunk is licensed under CC BY 2.0.