How to Run with a Big Head
Disciplines
Biology | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Abstract (300 words maximum)
As animals begin to grow, they usually do not maintain a one-to-one ratio between their different body lengths and widths. Humans, for example, have large heads proportional to their body size as infants, but as we grow up our bodies grow while our heads become smaller proportionately to our bodies. Ants differ in this, as an ant gets bigger, so does its head. We focused on fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, to measure walking speed of workers varying in size. Our purpose in taking these measurements was to see how body proportions impact how the fire ants move. Starting in January of this year, I began picking up a research project about the biomechanics of ants who had run on a treadmill constructed on the Marietta campus. After the ants completed their running trials, I began dissecting the ants to then mounted them to be able to take their body measurements to see how the ratios of their body correlated with their running ability. I predicted that larger heads on an ant would come at a cost to the body. A larger head has a higher metabolic cost on the body, and the body would have to compensate to support it - such as an increased width to the foreleg outside of the 1:1 ratio.
Keywords: entomology, Solenopsis invicta, biomechanics, momentum, proportions, metabolic cost
Academic department under which the project should be listed
Ecology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Clint Penick
How to Run with a Big Head
As animals begin to grow, they usually do not maintain a one-to-one ratio between their different body lengths and widths. Humans, for example, have large heads proportional to their body size as infants, but as we grow up our bodies grow while our heads become smaller proportionately to our bodies. Ants differ in this, as an ant gets bigger, so does its head. We focused on fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, to measure walking speed of workers varying in size. Our purpose in taking these measurements was to see how body proportions impact how the fire ants move. Starting in January of this year, I began picking up a research project about the biomechanics of ants who had run on a treadmill constructed on the Marietta campus. After the ants completed their running trials, I began dissecting the ants to then mounted them to be able to take their body measurements to see how the ratios of their body correlated with their running ability. I predicted that larger heads on an ant would come at a cost to the body. A larger head has a higher metabolic cost on the body, and the body would have to compensate to support it - such as an increased width to the foreleg outside of the 1:1 ratio.
Keywords: entomology, Solenopsis invicta, biomechanics, momentum, proportions, metabolic cost