Ants in Florida perform life-saving surgery on their peers, scientists have discovered. They are only the second animal in the world known to do this — along with humans.
Specifically, the researchers looked at two types of leg wounds: lacerations on the femur and those lower down on the tibia.Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowGet the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. The scientists suggest ants only amputate femur injuries, rather than all leg injuries, because of speed limitations.After studying micro-CT scans of the ants, the researchers speculated that the damage to blood-pumping muscles in the femur causes blood circulation to slow. This would mean that bacteria-laden blood would take longer to enter the body, allowing the ants enough time to amputate the limb.