10 Fascinating Facts About Ants

10 Fascinating Facts About Ants In many ways, ants can outwit, outlast, and outnumber humans. Their complex, cooperative societies enable them to survive and thrive in conditions that would challenge any individual. Here are 10 fascinating facts about ants that just might convince you that while you wouldnt welcome them to your next picnic, theyre still pretty amazing creatures. 1. Ants Have Super-Human Strength Ants can carry objects 50 times their own body weight in their jaws. Relative to their size, their muscles are thicker than those of larger animals- even humans. This ratio enables them to produce more force and carry larger objects. If you  had muscles in the proportions of ants, youd be able to heave a Hyundai over your head! 2. Soldier Ants Use their Heads to Plug Holes In certain ant species, the soldier ants have modified heads, shaped to match the nest entrance. They block access to the nest by sitting just inside the entrance, with their heads functioning like a cork in a bottle to keep intruders at bay. When a worker ant returns to the nest, it touches the soldier ants head to let the guard know it belongs to the colony. 3. Ants Can Form Symbiotic Relationship with Plants Ant plants, or myrmecophytes, are plants that have naturally occurring hollows in which ants can take shelter or feed. These cavities may be hollow thorns, stems, or even leaf petioles. The ants live in the hollows, feeding on sugary plant secretions or the excretions of sap-sucking insects. What does a plant get for providing such luxurious accommodations? The ants defend the host plant from herbivorous mammals and insects and may even prune away parasitic plants that attempt to grow on it. 4. The Total Biomass of Ants The Biomass of People How can this be? After all, ants are so tiny, and were so much bigger. That said, scientists estimate there are at least 1.5 million ants on the planet for every human being. Over 12,000 species of ants are known to exist, on every continent except Antarctica. Most live in tropical regions. A single acre of Amazon rainforest may be home to 3.5 million ants. 5. Ants Sometimes Herd Insects of Other Species Ants will do just about anything to get the sugary secretions of sap-sucking insects, such as aphids or leafhoppers. To keep the honeydew in close supply, some ants herd aphids, carrying the soft-bodied pests from plant to plant. Leafhoppers sometimes take advantage of this nurturing tendency in ants and leave their young to be raised by the ants. This allows the leafhoppers to raise another brood. 6. Some Ants Enslave Other Ants Quite a few ant species take captives from other ant species, forcing them to do chores for their own colony. Honeypot ants even enslave ants of the same species, taking individuals from foreign colonies to do their bidding. Polyergus queens, also known as Amazon ants, raid the colonies of unsuspecting Formica ants. The Amazon queen finds and kills the Formica queen, then enslaves the Formica workers. The slave workers help the usurping queen rear her own brood. When her Polyergus offspring reach adulthood, their sole purpose is to raid other Formica colonies and bring back their pupae, ensuring a steady supply of slave workers. 7. Ants Lived Alongside Dinosaurs Ants evolved some 130 million years ago during the early Cretaceous period. Most fossil evidence of insects is found in lumps of ancient amber, or fossilized plant resin. The oldest known ant fossil, a primitive and now extinct ant species named Sphercomyrma freyi, was found in Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey. Though that fossil only dates back 92 million years, another fossil ant that proved nearly as old has a clear lineage to present-day ants, which suggests a much longer evolutionary line than previously assumed. 8. Ants Started Farming Long Before Humans Fungus-farming ants began their agricultural ventures about 50 million years before humans thought to raise their own crops. The earliest evidence suggests ants began farming as early as 70 million years ago, in the early Tertiary period. Even more amazing, these ants used sophisticated horticultural techniques to enhance their crop yields, including secreting chemicals with antibiotic properties to inhibit mold growth and devising fertilization protocols using manure. 9. Ant Supercolonies Can Stretch Thousands of Miles Argentine ants, native to South America, now inhabit every continent except Antarctica due to accidental introductions. Each ant colony has a distinctive chemical profile that enables members of the group to recognize one another and alerts the colony to the presence of strangers. Scientists recently discovered that massive supercolonies in Europe, North America, and Japan all share the same chemical profile, meaning they are, in essence, a global supercolony of ants. 10. Scout Ants Lay Scent Trails to Guide Others to Food By following pheromone trails laid by scout ants from their colony, foraging ants can gather and store food efficiently. A scout ant first leaves the nest in search of food, wandering somewhat randomly until it discovers something edible. It then consumes some of the food and returns to the nest in a direct line. It seems scout ants can observe and recall visual cues that enable them to navigate quickly back to the nest. Along the return route, the scout ants leave a trail of pheromones- which are special scents they secrete- that guide their nestmates to the food. The foraging ants then follow the path designated by the scout ant, each one adding more scent to the trail to reinforce it for others. Worker ants continue walking back and forth along the trail until the food source is depleted.

Researching the Civil War Soldiers in Your Family Tree

Researching the Civil War Soldiers in Your Family Tree The American Civil War, fought from 1861-1865, affected nearly every man, woman, and child living in the United States. Almost 3.5 million soldiers are believed to have been involved, with around 360,000 Union soldiers and 260,000 Confederate soldiers losing their lives as a direct result of the war. Given the dramatic impact of this conflict, if your ancestors lived in the United States during this time, it is likely that youll find at least one Civil War soldier in your family tree. Locating a Civil War ancestor, whether it is a direct ancestor or a collateral relative, can provide another source of information on your family tree. Civil War pension files, for example, contain statements of family relationships, dates and places of marriage, and lists of various places the soldier lived after the war. Muster-in rolls often contain places of birth, as do descriptive rolls. Before You Begin the soldiers namewhether he served for the Union or Confederate armythe state from which the soldier served In Which Unit Did Your Soldier Serve? Once youve determined the state from which your Civil War ancestor likely served, the next helpful step is to learn which company and regiment to which he was assigned. If your ancestor was a Union soldier, he may have been part of the U.S. Regulars, a unit of the United States Army. More likely he was a member of a volunteer regiment raised by his home state, such as the 11th Virginia Volunteers or the 4th Maine Volunteer Infantry. If your Civil War ancestor was an artilleryman, you may find him in a battery unit such as Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery or Battery A, 1st North Carolina Artillery, also called Manlys Battery. African-American soldiers served in regiments ending with U.S.C.T. which stands for United States Colored Troops. These regiments also had Caucasian officers. While infantry regiments were the most common type of service unit of the Civil War, there were many other branches of service on both sides - Union and Confederate. Your Civil War ancestor may have been in a heavy artillery regiment, cavalry, engineers or even the navy. There are many ways to learn the regiment in which your ancestor served. Begin at home, by asking your parents, grandparents and other relatives. Check photo albums and other old family records as well. If you know where the solider is buried, his tombstone may list his state and unit number. If you know the county where the soldier lived when he enlisted, then county histories or other county resources should provide details of the units formed in the area. Neighbors and family members often enlisted together, which may provide further clues. Even if you only know the state in which your Civil War ancestor served, most states compiled and published a list of the soldiers in each unit from that state. These can often be found at a libraries with a local history or genealogical collection. Some lists have also been partially published online. There are also two country-wide published series that list the soldiers who served in the Union or Confederate armies during the war, along with their regiments: The Roster of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865 (Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing) - A 33-volume set that lists all of the men who served in the Union armies by state, regiment and company.The Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 - A 16-volume set that lists all of the individuals who served in the southern armies during the war, by state and organization. Civil War Soldiers Sailors System (CWSS) sponsored by the National Park Service. The system features an on-line database of names of soldiers, sailors, and United States Colored Troops who served in the Civil War based on records at the National Archives. The subscription-based U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles collection at Ancestry.com and the American Civil War Research Database are other excellent resources for online Civil War research. They will cost you, but both generally offer further details than the CWSS database. If your ancestor has a common name, however, it may be difficult to distinguish him in these lists until you have identified his location and regiment. are other excellent resources for online Civil War research. They will cost you, but both generally offer further details than the CWSS database. If your ancestor has a common name, however, it may be difficult to distinguish him in these lists until you have identified his location and regiment. Once youve determined your Civil War soldiers name, state and regiment, its time to turn to service records and pension records, the meat of Civil War research. Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) Whether fighting for the Union or the Confederacy, each volunteer soldier who served in the Civil War will have a Compiled Military Service Record for each regiment in which he served. The majority of Civil War soldiers served in volunteer regiments, distinguishing them from individuals serving in the regular U.S. Army. The CMSR contains basic information about the soldiers military career, when and where he enlisted, when he was present or absent from camp, amount of bounty paid, how long he served, and when and where he was discharged, or died. Additional detail, when pertinent, may also be included, including information on hospitalization for injury or illness, capture as a prisoner of war, courts martial, etc. The CMSR is an envelope (called a jacket) containing one or more cards. Each card contains information compiled several years after the Civil War from original muster rolls and other records that survived the war. This includes Confederate records captured by the Union armies. How to Obtain Copies of Compiled Military Service Records Online from Fold3.com – Fold3.com, in collaboration with the National Archives, has digitized CMSRs from most states, both Confederate and Union, and put them online where they can be viewed and downloaded for a fee. CMSRs are currently available for most, but not all states at Fold3.com.Order Online from the National Archives – You can order Civil War Service records from the National Archives online or by mail for a fee. To use this service, you will need the soldiers name, regiment, state and allegiance. If you prefer to order a copy by mail, you will need to download and use NATF Form 86. Civil War Pension Records Most Union Civil War soldiers, or their widows or other dependents, applied for a pension from the U.S. federal government. The biggest exception were unmarried soldiers who died during or soon after the war. Confederate pensions, on the other hand, were generally only available for disabled or indigent soldiers, and sometimes their dependents. Union Civil War Pension Records are available from the National Archives. Indexes to these Union pension records are available online by subscription at Fold3.com and Ancestry.com (subscription links). Copies of the full Union Pension File (often containing dozens of pages) and be ordered online or by mail from the National Archives. Confederate Civil War Pension Records can generally be found in the appropriate State Archives or equivalent agency. Some states have also put indexes to or even digitized copies of their Confederate pension records online.Confederate Pension Records – A State by State Guide

Congenital Localized Alopecia Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Congenital Localized Alopecia - Article Example Thos infants that are found should have a focused reassessment, a thorough family history, and continued examination of the hair (Furdon & Clark, 2003). The clinician must also have a good understanding of the embryological development and cycles of hair growth, as well as an understanding of abnormal conditions. This paper will discuss a few of those conditions that might be seen in the newborn and young child. Aplasia Cutis is a rare condition in which there is a congenital absence of the skin, usually presenting on the scalp (Beckman, Griot, Niessen et.al., 2008). It can occur anywhere in the body but most often occurs at or near the scalp vertex and appears to be a single or sometimes multiple non-inflammatory patch of absent skin. It can vary in shape and size and how deep it is (Huang, Llang, Hu,et.al., 2009). In about 20% of reported cases, part of the skull is also missing. The area may be pink or red and oval or round and may have a smooth, atrophic or papyraceus surface (Savoia, Giacomini, Aprile, et.al., 2008). If the child is seen for the first time later, there may be hypertropic scarring where any healing takes place. There are two different clinical presentations of this particular disease. Membranous which is believed to be a mild form of tubal closure defect and non-membranous which is irregular. In both cases this is a sporadic disorder with a rare familial distribution (Huang, et.al., 2008). The average child is Caucasian of Italian origin. Aplasia Cutis may appear isolated or with other anomalies and frequently appears when there is also a nervous system defect. It sometimes appears with epidermolysis bullosa and deformed nails and occasionally with congenital heart lesions. In the case of membranous, there is possibility that it represents a mild neural tube defect. The difference in membranous and non-membranous may be the difference in pathogenic effects in the formation of the scalp. It may appear with Adams-Oliver syndrome in which there is a combination of congenital aplasia cutis and anomalies of the extremities and vessels , especially in the skull (Beckman, et.al., 2008) The severity of the disease when the child is born will determine what needs to be done next. In some cases the lesions will have already scarred over, in others tissue expansion will need to be done. Full thickness skin grafts can be used in those cases where necessary. If the defect is minor, most heal readily. It is recommended that topical antiseptic or topical antibiotics be used however to prevent infection while healing. There may need to be later treatment of hair transplant and there may be a need for some plastic surgery later in life based on the scaring that takes place. When using a non surgical approach there are recommendations for Omniderm with absorbent fine mesh gauze impregnated with 3% bismuth tribromophenateridin for cranial defects and the use of permeable polyurethne film in others. Certainly a full work up and follow up on these children, other than the skin lesions is necessary to assure that there are not other problems to be cared for or stabilized over their lifetime. Those can most often include neurological disorders as well as cardiac disorders. Nevus Sebaceous Nevus Sebaceous is difficult to differentiate from aplasia cutis. Nevus Sebaceous is