Scientists now estimate that the global population of ants is a staggering 20 quadrillion.
'The Guardian' reports that means there are approximately 2.5 million ants for every single human.
The ant has thrived since the age of the dinosaur.
The oldest-known ant fossil dates back to about 100 million years, at a time known as the Cretaceous period.
"Ants certainly play a very central role in almost every terrestrial ecosystem." Patrick Schultheiss, Co-author and entomologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany and the University of Hong Kong, via 'The Guardian'.
The world is home to over 12,000 known species of ants, which range in size from about 1 millimeter to about 1.2 inches long.
They exist everywhere on the planet, except in Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland and a few island nations.
The ant's closest relatives are bees and wasps.
The team's work was published in the journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.'
"Ants are so essential for the smooth working of biological processes that they can be seen as ecosystem engineers. The late ant scientist E.O. Wilson once called them ’the little things that run the world’." Patrick Schultheiss, Co-author and entomologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany and the University of Hong Kong, via 'The Guardian'