If you go back in time and step on an ant, will it change the future?

Of course time travel isn't possible... yet. But if it was, would one ant make a difference? The answer is no. Ants don't function as an individual, they function as a highly intelligent and sophisticated colony, a kind of super organism, if you will. Each individual ant has a specific function for that colony since birth, and it all depends on the size of the ant, which is controlled during its development phase by other worker ants. It all starts with the Queen, who ultimately came from another colony's Queen and was raised to a super large size by worker ants for that sole purpose. A newly produced Queen ant will leave the colony, fly around, and get inseminated by males, who then die after completing their sole purpose. The Queen stores the semen and finds a clear patch of dirt and starts digging, once she is deep enough she will rip off her wings and keep producing worker ants. The smallest ants are considered gardeners. These creatures have figured out how to farm fungus and grow it underground for a food supply to nourish the queen and developing ants. They store samples of the fungus in their mouth and deposit it on newly foraged leaves, that were brought in by a massive assembly line of larger sized foraging ants. These foraging ants leave the colony in search of a new tree that has leaves for the picking, and once found they leave a biochemical trail that can be detected through their antennae. They run at blazing speeds for such a small size, if they were human sized it would be the equivalent of running a three minute and forty five second mile... for ten miles!! The leaves that they chomp down would be equivalent to a burden of 750 pounds, and speeds back to the nest at a pace of a four minute mile. This is clearly exceptional, and no ant will stray from the path, because it takes them less than a full second to adjust if their antenna breaches the chemical path. Once the foraged leaves are brought to the entrance of the nest, they are passed on to a slightly smaller sized ant who can navigate the extensive tunnel network with ease. The internal colony isn't just run by small ants and the Queen though. They have also grown a select number of ants to a large size, that dwell in the tunnels as protectors, with massive pincers. When entomologists dig into a nest and grow careless, these soldier ants will bite their hands and cause blood to be drawn. The Queen of this new powerful colony will pass on her legacy by producing a few other Queen sized ants who fly out of the nest and repeat the cycle. This goes to show that humans aren't the only intelligent species to occupy this earth, the ants have owned it long before us, as have many other animals, yet we see ourselves as more significant beings and tend to cut down forests and habits with no concern for other species. Farming has kept ants alive for centuries, it is clearly an adaptation that is essential to the survival of a massive population within a dominant species. Next time you see an ant, think about what its sole purpose is for its colony, and how many other ants rely on the power of teamwork to stay alive, and maybe, just maybe, you won't crush it on the sidewalk. If you want to read more into the power of nature, pick up the book "Biophilia" by Edward Wilson. This information came from his chapter "The Superorganism"