If ants were the size of dogs...
 

If ants were the size of dogs, would they take over the world? Most likely, i mean, at their size they can basically do anything, they are strong as hell, and have great organization skills. What's your take?

The Human race would be fucked. With their exoskelton they would be unstoppable.

Small animals are stronger proportionally to their size, but an ant the size of a dog wouldnt necessarly be stronger than a dog. In fact, I dont even know if their legs could hold their weight.

Say for example you take a muscle and make it 2 time bigger. The muscle is going to be 4 times as powerful. BUT, its weight is going to increase by a factor of 8. So bigger animals are very impressive, but most bigger animals would have a very hard time lifting something of their own weight. Dont expect ants to be able to lift 50 times their own weight (like they can now) if they were as big as dogs.

Not to mention that it's the most populous animal on the planet and they can carry up to 50x their weight


EDIT: ah, interesting point Orodinn

when i say 'size of dogs' i just mean an estimation of something around that, the ant would keep it's proportions perfectly, just scale it up to something that resembles the average size of a dog.

however strong the ants are i'd be scared shitless of them, espically those bitching ants that fly..i hate those little (well not so little if dog sized!) ants!

at the proportions mentioned... Their legs would snap.
I watched a show on it once, about how all the movies using giant ants, or spiders, were impossible.

if ants could be the size of dogs And hold their own weight, i would have one live with me and feed it bags of sugar. that way it would not be afraid when i follow its tunnel through the ground behind. either that or make a big magnifying glass.

What about all the ant shit laying around?

Bugs are scary enough as it is. Let's not paint pictures for my nightmares tonight.

If I recall correctly, they also get oxygen by absorption.

If the ant was that large, it couldn't get enough oxygen via absorption to live (its volume has increased by a cubic while it's surface area has only squared).

Orodinn and all the nay-sayers are right.
Without getting into all of the problems with big ant's specificly the general idea doesn't work. Ants are succsessfull because they are small. They gain a lot of advantages from being small, like low food requiremtns and great relitive strength. If big ants were very effective creatures we would already have something along that line, the evolutionary nitch would be more or less filled.
Wow, I'm just dictating rather than making an argument. how un-me like.

well why don't I leave the argument as an exsersize for the reader.

All the things that make them wonders would not work if they were that large, might as well say if a Papermate Eraseable Pen was equipped to carry a small nuclear warhead and have the capability as an ICBM, we'd all be doomed.

Well just to play along...

If ants were the size of dogs, I would own a shotgun and carry it with me at all times.

someone's been watching too much Food of the Gods.

Giants ants . . . now that would freak me out! I already hate bugs enough as it is.

I agree about them scaring me, I think the main point is that they couldn't really exist as they are on dry land (with an exoskeleton). There are no animals as large as a dog that have such a feature. The largest exoskeletal animals are found to be living under water... Like a lobster.

Isn't a lobster just a big insect ? really?

Kinda makes you think twice about eating one doesn't it.

What if gorillas bred and acted like ants?

there used to some game i had on my old Amiga which was all about giant ants invading... so if we go by that game... we´ll be ok if we just shoot at their antennae.

well, not really, its a crustacean, but i see your point... interesting that a close relative of the lobster is called the Balmain Bug (or the Moreton Bay Bug).

if giant ants turned out to be as delicious as lobster, i´d have no problem with them... but i think the sheer number of them would be dangerous (we´d all have to eat heaps of them to keep numbers down!)

Speaking of big bugs, did you know that long time ago, there used to be 1 meter long scorpions? Yea, these creatures've been on earth for the longest time. 200 millions years before the dinosaurs. Even today, some 21 cm scorpions can be found in Africa I think.

Theyve also found fossil of ancient dragonfly with 28 inches wingspans!!! God, that must have been scary. I wonder what their diet was...

How bout this. we are shrank so relative to us the ant is the size of a shrinked dog.... in another word, the ant doesn't change in size, but the humans are natuually small... that would be scary. All the bugs would be so big...

with that tiny brain, we'd be complete idiots. But our agility and our relative resistance would increase to astronomical levels. We'd be able to fight just like in those dragon ball cartoons.

If ants were the size of dogs, forget the damn shotgun. Their exoskeletons would deflect the bullets. Get a freaking missile launcher! :)

Im going to sit in a dark corner and rock myself to sleep. Mummy!!!!

lets put it this way,....

IF ants were the size of dogs....
... Then guns would be legal.

See? it'd solve one problem :)

We could use the pens to kill the big ants!

it would be fun picking them off as they tried to get onto my property

ALL the scientific responces are swell and all and they make lots of good points (like the oxygen absorption thing) But,I'm not sure about any of that stuff but I do know....................................

They would be alot harder to stomp on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anybody ever read Ender's Game?

i would just tame them and have my own legion of and warriors that i could ride around town!!!

We would have bigger cans of raid.

You're all so smart.

As long as they can't carry a magnifing glass we're ok.

hahahahahahahahahah! Nice one GStrider!

http://www.photobucket.com/albums/09...oleman/ant.jpg

this would happen!

If ants were the size of dogs id regret stepping on their small counterparts.

Then we would have ant hunting season instead of deer season.

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/courses/Gary/TCF289/THEM.GIF

http://www.nuclearspace.com/images/articles/them.jpg


Science is wrong. :crazy:

The largest anthills would be roughly 1 mile high.

What if worms had machine guns?

Birds wouldn't fuck with 'em.


That's my favorite response to "What if..." questions.