Natures wonders: snap jaw ants (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, July 22, 2022, 17:23 (637 days ago) @ David Turell

The design of how the jaws work:

https://www.livescience.com/trap-jaw-ants-avoid-self-destruction?utm_campaign=368B3745-...

"Moving at speeds thousands of times faster than the blink of an eye, the spring-loaded jaws of a trap-jaw ant catch the insect's prey by surprise and can also launch the ant into the air if it aims its chompers at the ground. Now, scientists have revealed how the ant's jaws can snap closed at blistering speeds without shattering from the force.

"In a new study, published Thursday (July 21) in the Journal of Experimental Biology(opens in new tab), a team of biologists and engineers studied a species of trap-jaw ant called Odontomachus brunneus, native to parts of the U.S., Central America and the West Indies. To build up power for their lightning-fast bites, the ants first stretch their jaws apart, so they form a 180 degree angle, and "cock" them against latches inside their heads. Enormous muscles, attached to each jaw by a tendon-like cord, pull the jaws into place and then flex to build up a store of elastic energy; this flexion is so extreme that it warps the sides of the ant's head, causing them to bow inward, the team found. When the ant strikes, its jaws unlatch and that stored energy gets released at once, sending the jaws smashing together.

"The researchers examined this spring-loaded mechanism in fine detail, but the project's engineers puzzled over how the system could work without generating too much friction. Friction would not only slow the jaws down, but would also generate destructive wear-and-tear at each jaw's point of rotation. Using mathematical modeling, they eventually found an answer as to how trap-jaw ants avoid this problem.

"'This is the part that engineers are incredibly excited about," in part because the discovery could pave the way for the construction of tiny robots whose parts can rotate with unparalleled speed and precision, Sheila Patek, the Hehmeyer Professor of Biology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the study's senior author, told Live Science."

Comment: this very complex mechanism has many interlocking requirements that means it is irreducibly complex and must be designed to appear all together all at once in evolution. and once again nature is smarter than we are in offering new engineering for us to copy.