Ants break a basic rule of biology to help them adapt to new environments

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies .

The short version

• Bigger animals usually have bigger body parts.
• It's one of biology's most familiar patterns.
• Yet some ants appear to break that rule.

What happened

The discovery offers a new view of how evolution can loosen biological constraints and produce new combinations of traits. The study, titled " Breaking trait scaling via the evolution and regulation of dimorphic decoupling in ants ," is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Why it matters

The researchers studied Pheidole, a highly diverse genus of ants whose colonies include small workers and much larger soldiers.

Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Phys.org via the links above and below.