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  1. #1
    BPnet Veteran Ax01's Avatar
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    Big, Ol' Termite Mounds... but Where are the BP's?

    so alotta BP's in the wilds of Africa spend most of their time hiding in rodent burrows and termite mounds. but this huge cluster of 4,000 year old termite mounds lacks BP's. why? b/c they're in Brazil, duh!

    a few cool, quick facts:
    -- researchers estimate there are 200 million total mounds
    -- the mounds are spread out over an area the size of Britain
    -- they were built around the same time time as Egyptian pyramids
    -- the mounds are like the equivalent of 4,000 pyramids!

    i think it's so cool that there are so many architects in nature including these termites. their structures and species will outlast us!




    story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46274502
    Big Termite mounds in Brazil seen from space

    At 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) tall and 9 metres (30 feet) wide, the mounds have been built by a termite species, called Syntermes dirus, for 4000 years.

    Shaped in a grid pattern the mounds cover a space of 88,800 square miles.

    The heaped mounds aren't lived in by the insects, instead researchers from 'Current Biology' say the heaped earth is merely waste material brought to the surface by the termites as they carve out lots of underground tunnels for their homes beneath the surface.

    Syntermes dirus are some of the largest termites in world, they are often used as food by the local tribes in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

    These termites live underground and feed on dead leaves from the forest floor at night. Like most termites, these insects are blind but they are very good at making soil mounds.

    and here: https://www.yahoo.com/news/termite-c...132724663.html
    Termite colony the size of Great Britain ‘has been being built since the dawn of the Pyramids’

    It’s a construction project unlike any on our planet: it’s the size of Great Britain, and has been going on for 3,820 years, since the Pyramids were first built.

    But no humans have been involved in the huge landscape of 200 million mounds in Brazil – it was all built by termites.

    Researchers in northeast Brazil sampled soil in 11 locations and found that some of it began nearly four thousand years ago.

    Each mound is actually waste from a huge subterranean tunnel network where the termites have laboured for thousands of years.

    Professor Stephen Martin of the University of Salford said, ‘These mounds were formed by a single termite species that excavated a massive network of tunnels to allow them to access dead leaves to eat safely and directly from the forest floor.’

    ‘The amount of soil excavated is over 10 cubic kilometres, equivalent to 4,000 great pyramids of Giza, and represents one of the biggest structures built by a single insect species.’

    ‘It’s incredible that, in this day and age, you can find an ‘unknown’ biological wonder of this sheer size and age still existing, with the occupants still present.’

    Co-author Roy Funch of Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana in Brazil said, ‘This is apparently the world’s most extensive bioengineering effort by a single insect species



    and they can be seen from satelittes: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...zil/2076674002
    Massive 4,000-year-old termite mounds can be seen on Google Earth

    Millions of termite mounds believed to be nearly 4,000 years old were discovered in a remote Brazilian forest, according to researchers.

    There are about 200 million of them spanning across an area the size of Great Britain in Northeast Brazil, scientists estimate in research published in the journal Current Biology. Some of the cone-shaped mounds are as tall as 10 feet and as wide as 30 feet.

    A single termite species is responsible for the massive network of tunnels that excavated enough soil to build 4,000 great pyramids of Giza, Stephen Martin of the University of Salford in the U.K. said in a statement. Some of the mounds are still actively used by termites.

    "This is apparently the world's most extensive bioengineering effort by a single insect species," Roy Funch of Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana in Brazil said.

    While some reports say the mounds can be viewed from space, Funch told USA TODAY that's an overstatement. They can, however, be easily viewed on open source satellite images, including Google Earth.
    RIP Mamba
    ----------------

    Wicked ones now on IG & FB!6292

  2. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Ax01 For This Useful Post:

    Dianne (11-21-2018),distaff (11-21-2018),Pengil (11-21-2018),Sonny1318 (11-21-2018)

  3. #2
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    A little off-topic, but I recall a video where the shadows cast by termite mounds along the Amazon River were used to estimate the length of a snake photographed that was swimming in the river. Old photograph, taken from a plane. Basically, evidence that there are some BIG anacondas out there.

    Don't know if true, or not, and don't recall the est. length, as I watched it several years ago.

    Anyway, I'm impressed by the industry of the South American termites.
    Had no clue.
    Last edited by distaff; 11-21-2018 at 04:17 PM.

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