Nature

Ants have been farming fungus for 50 million years — we've farmed crops for 12,000

Long before leafcutter ants existed, an ancestral group of ants began cultivating fungus gardens inside their nests, feeding them chewed plant matter and defending them with antibiotic-producing bacteria. Genetic dating puts the origin of this ant-fungus partnership at roughly 50 million years ago, with true leaf-cutting behaviour evolving more recently, around 8 to 12 million years ago. The fungus is now so dependent on its farmers that most strains can't survive in the wild without them.

Ted R. Schultz and Seán G. Brady, Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008

One credited idea per card. No filler. Swipe the rest in Savvy.

Keep swiping — it's free Works right in your browser. No app store needed.