Ants have a combined global population estimated at twenty quadrillion, meaning their total biological mass is roughly equal to or greater than the biomass of all wild birds and mammals combined.

A closer look

Ants have a combined global population estimated at twenty quadrillion, meaning their total biological mass is roughly equal to or greater than the biomass of all wild birds and mammals combined. These highly organized insects operate in complex eusocial colonies, utilizing chemical pheromones to communicate, farm fungus, raise aphids like livestock, and wage organized chemical warfare against rival nests. While humanity flatters itself with titles like the apex predator of the modern world, we are completely surrounded by trillions of tiny, six-legged union workers who outnumber us two and a half million to one. If the ants ever figure out how to bypass their size limitations and coordinate a global uprising, our fancy smartphones and nuclear arsenals will not save us from being systematically dismantled and carried away into the dirt