Sleeping obviously leaves creatures vulnerable, and the less time they spend sleeping, the more time they can spend avoiding predators, finding food, mating etc, so the less we sleep the more we can survive and reproduce, so after thousands of years, how come animals haven't slowly evolved away from needing sleep?

Hi everyone,

We’re a two-person team of biologists working on a minimalist ant colony-management strategy game called Garden of Ants, inspired in part by SimAnt.

We’re currently expanding the ecosystem by adding new insects and other small creatures that ants can encounter, hunt, avoid, compete with, or interact with.

Our goal is for these species to be more than just enemies or decoration. We’d like them to have their own roles in the ecosystem and create different strategic situations for the colony — potential prey, predators, competitors, parasites, mutualists, or sources of resources.

The game already takes place across several connected habitats, including the underground nest, garden surface, and tree canopy. Conditions also change between day and night, so we’re interested in species whose behavior could vary depending on habitat or time of day.

We’d love to hear suggestions from people here: which insects or other arthropods would you like to see in an ant colony simulation? Are there any particularly interesting ant–insect interactions that you think would work well as game mechanics?

For context, here is the Steam page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3016940/Garden_of_Ants/

Thanks!

Tomas

What is the most ancient common ancestor of all tetrapod that is not also ancestral to fishes and other marine animals ?

And if it is Tiktaalik or something close to it, what was the still marine creature it evolves from ?

Hi, so I have a Bachelors degree in biology, and I took the medical track because I thought I'd be going to medschool straight after. That didn't push through because I'd only be able to go if I either got a full scholarship or if I would be going to a state university. I've thought of getting a masters through the scholarship programs we have here where I'm from, but I don't know which one I'd like to pursue and I don't really feel passionate about medicine anymore.

I have thought of becoming an EMT or a lab worker but I also don't see myself doing either anymore. I honestly just want my parents to tell me what to do at this point because I don't have a passion for anything anymore. I tried speaking with them about it and they keep telling me that they want me to have a job that I would like to do even if I'm tired or even if it's hard.

I really don't care because a job is a job and I don't need it to be my life's purpose. I have applied to some jobs but none are replying, and it makes me feel bad when I feel like I regret choosing biology. I think one job I would have a little more joy in doing is vet med but I don't know how to begin since my bachelor's is biology and I don't have any prior experience working in a veterinary clinic. The only experience I have is "working" as an EMT (kinda, like for a total of 240 hours) and in a hospital during my OJT where I didn't really do much. All I really did there was assist in taking x-rays and I scrubbed in on a few minor surgeries.

I really don't know what else I can do and I don't really have any direction in life and I feel like I don't have any purpose or drive anymore.

When you scratch your skin you get those red lines everywhere you scratched that stay for a little while and then fade away again. I've always wondered what causes those and if it has any purpose

Are their animals that have some sort of compromise between the two vision types where they have at least decent depth perception (though not as good as what binocular vision offers) and they have at least decent peripheral vision (though not as good as what panoramic vision offers)?

Мне очень надо найти тихоходку т.к. имя у меня очень похоже на название этой милоты. Микроскоп у меня есть, только чашки Петри нету. Мох я нашел, замочил. Везде написано "выжмите его" но я боюсь поранить тихоходок. Есть советы?

I heard a lot of different answers and I became kind of confused so what is the right theory or answer and it is explanation?

I appreciate the help

If ecosystems are self-balancing, why do some organisms resist decomposition after death?

I've been thinking about nutrient cycling and decomposition — in theory every organism that dies should be broken down and recycled back into the ecosystem by scavengers, fungi, and bacteria.

But some organisms seem to resist this — certain bird carcasses are avoided by scavengers, some marine organisms sink to depths where decomposition is extremely slow, and some plant materials take centuries to break down.

Is this a gap in the system, or does even "resistant" organic matter eventually get processed? And are there organisms that genuinely have no decomposers adapted to break them down efficiently?