Scientists create monster ‘supersoldier’ ants just because they can

Man-made monster ants with huge heads and jaws

Someone should take the old saying ‘just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should’ and tattoo it to the forehead’s of scientists because there are somethings that we just don’t need them to screw with, and this whole ‘supersoldier’ ants thing is one of those.

By screwing with some ancient gene within ants and then dabbing normal ant larva with some special hormone scientists at McGill University in Canada have caused those larva to develop into supersoldier ants instead of the normal run of the mill worker ant or soldier ant.

Supersoldier ants can occur naturally in the wild, but only rarely. In the deserts of America and Mexico, their job is to protect the colony from raids by invading army ants.

The supersoldiers use their enormous heads to block the nest entrance and attack any enemy ants that get too close.

Scientists showed that ordinary ants of the species Pheidole morrisi contain all the genetic ‘tools’ needed to turn them into supersoldiers – they just need a hormonal push.

via Daily Mail

Really, a hormone push and we end up with something like this.

via Geekologie

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