Antscan, a new and innovative platform, provides free access to high-quality and high-resolution (micrometer-resolution) reconstructions of ants, revealing the amazing complexity of these insects’ anatomy. With a dataset featuring 792 species representing 212 genera, Antscan brings the majority of ant diversity as described into focus. Through an interactive online portal, you can access this one-of-a-kind resource—completely free. This makes it all possible—rotate, zoom in, and virtually dissect insects all from your laptop!
University of Maryland biodiversity scientist Evan Economo, and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History entomologist Julian Katzke led the effort. Getting that research done would have been impossible without their successful scanning of 2,200 preserved ant samples. Antscan also leveraged micro-CT beamlines of the synchrotron light source facility at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology located in Germany. As you might imagine, as a result, they created over 200 terabytes of data. Using new algorithms and advanced neural networks, this data was then reconstructed into richly detailed 3D volumes.
Unprecedented Insight into Ant Anatomy
Antscan’s close-up pictures capture the impressionistic detail of their broad, armored exoskeletons, which help protect these industrious insects. It points to their dangerous internal architecture, with muscles, nerves, and digestive tracts surrounding their needle-like stingers. This unprecedented detail opens up new avenues of research and offers a priceless window into the anatomy and variability of ants.
“This is kind of like having a genome for shape.” – Evan Economo
The images serve as a permanent, high-resolution record of life’s architecture, effectively creating an anatomical time capsule that researchers can query and revisit long after fragile specimens degrade or wild populations vanish. The platform allows scientists to identify trends across the whole ant tree of life. This transferable breakthrough provides exhilarating new routes for research within the spaces of evolutionary biology, particularly with morphology.
Antscan has already proved its usefulness in the ongoing research of the distribution of a biomineral “armor” layer within the world’s ants. Interestingly, this protective characteristic is not limited to just one species, it is widespread across fungus-farming ants. This fascinating discovery gives fabulous insight into how different species choose to adaptively alter their morphology and help them recover.
A Resource for Diverse Applications
The possible uses for Antscan’s dataset go far beyond the scientific community. Katzke emphasized its versatility:
“It is an extremely rich dataset that can be used for a number of different applications in science, but also for the arts and outreach and education.”
This trove of information presents researchers and educators with invaluable resources to encourage a greater understanding of biodiversity and anatomy. As this data becomes more accessible, so will opportunities for exciting interdisciplinary collaboration.
Further, the full dataset can be useful for quantifying how much ants ‘pay’ for their richly pigmented and light-absorbing protective outer shell. This is especially timely as scientists work to understand the role of evolutionary selective forces on morphological adaptations in varying environments.
A New Era for Morphological Research
Antscan’s debut marks a radical shift in morphological research. Just like large-scale sequencing projects have revolutionized genetic research over the past two decades.
“The full advantage of this dataset will be realized when these methods are deployed.” – Marek Borowiec
Every time a researcher taps into Antscan’s resources, they will unlock a new insight. These new technologies will tremendously compound our taxonomists’ capabilities to understand ant biology and evolution. The platform has served as a positive, powerful model. It illustrates how digital libraries of organismal form can become invaluable tools for robotics, engineering and countless other fields.
Antscan has the largest dataset available and user-friendly interface. … otherwise it risks missing the opportunity to transform the teaching of humanities and impress or inspire innovation throughout a host of other fields.
“I would really like to see these big libraries of organismal form one day be useful for people in robotics and engineering, so they can mine these data for new kinds of biomechanical designs.”
With its comprehensive dataset and user-friendly interface, Antscan stands poised to revolutionize the study of morphology and inspire new innovations across multiple disciplines.