ELI5; how can ants survive relatively gigantic and extremely heavy objects sitting on their bodies?

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So obviously when you step on an or any other insect it’ll get crunched and die instantly

As a small scale experiment, I had found some ants eating a lollipop that’s some kids have dropped near my front steps, there was a line of ants on the ground as well as ants all over the lollipop

I then proceeded to gently place a penny on top of the thorax of one of the unsuspecting ants that were on the ground, I used my handheld digital microscope to get a closer look

The ant desperately kicked and squirmed under the penny, but the weight of the coin far exceeded what an ant could lift and despite its best efforts, it was unable to get the coin off of it

I left it there for a few minutes, then removed it, and when I did, I could see that the ant had not so much as a scratch on it and it simply ran away unscathed
I also tried something smart which was to lay a small iPad on top of a larger beetle which yielded the same results

How come these bugs can withstand so much pressure on their bodies, at human scale this is like someone placing a 2010 iron disc on someone’s chest, they would surely be crushed to death

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5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

An ant can handle the weight of an enormous object resting on it because its exoskeleton is providing equal pressure on the object, in all area that is in contact with the ant, thus no single point on the ant has to sustain the full weight.

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