• Chozo@fedia.io
      391·
      4 months ago

      Here’s an excellent video where a VFX artist uses CGI tools to visualize what said biomass would look like:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPoMww9x378

      You can go to 6:20 if you don’t care about the methodology used to calculate the mass and just wanna see the ant tidal wave moneyshot.

    • bacon_saber@fedia.io
      24·
      4 months ago

      I read a while ago that humans probably have ants out-chonked since some time ago when we started gaining weight as a population.

      Had to check back on this since that little factoid has stuck with me since reading it.

      Per this journal from 2022, https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2201550119

      Integrating data from all continents and major biomes, we conservatively estimate 20 × 1015 (20 quadrillion) ants on Earth, with a total biomass of 12 megatons of dry carbon. This exceeds the combined biomass of wild birds and mammals and equals 20% of human biomass.

      Because if there’s anything worth getting scientific about, it’s us vs the ant horde. Suck it, ants!

  • Dr_Box@lemmy.world
    30·
    4 months ago

    Absolutely ants. The sheer volume of every ant in the world working together would be horrifying

    • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
      21·
      4 months ago

      That working together part adds so much to the ants’ advantage. Even if the ants’ entire strategy was “bite lions, no bite ants” they’d absolutely win

  • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
    24·
    4 months ago

    There are an estimated twenty quadrillion (20,000,000,000,000,000) ants in the world. They could wipe out all terrestrial life on earth if they wanted.

  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlEnglish
    23·
    4 months ago

    Ants easily, there are literally so fucking many. Like there are some singular species of ants that I think could did it alone

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    221·
    4 months ago

    Easily ants. Google ant swarm animal. But not right before bed. There’s a few insects that are evolved specifically to fight ants but everything else is food to them.

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
    9·
    4 months ago

    Ants just because of quantity. There’s estimates out there and it’s just ridiculous amounts of ants.

  • simple@lemm.ee
    7·
    4 months ago

    You know those timelapse youtube videos where you watch ants eating a small fruit within a couple of days? Imagine that, but with it happening a lot faster with so many ants covering lions that you wouldn’t be able to see them.

  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
    6·
    4 months ago

    Another vote for ants, although that’s partly because I’m a fan of the film Phase IV in which all ant species suddenly start cooperating with each other against humans.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
    72·
    4 months ago

    Humans. Because the lions would be overwhelmed in short order after which the ants would kill each other off.

    There are roughly 39,000 lions left in the world, none of which eat insects.

    There are roughly 20 quadrillion ants on earth, a significant portion of which will eat live mammals, and almost all of which will kill any ant not from their own colony.