When those insects are placed in mazes or new nests, researchers from the University of Bristol discovered that the ants almost always make left turns while exploring the unfamiliar setting. Consistently turning one direction over the other is a surer way of finding an exit if you’re lost or stuck somewhere. Or, the team added in a statement, “The ants may be using their left eye to detect predators and their right to navigate.” 
 
 While the team’s initial findings require more investigation, they point out that those follow-up studies could shed light on more than just a quirk of ant antics.
– Roughly nine in 10 humans are right-handed, an example of "brain lateralization" that's pretty common among vertebrates—and now apparently invertebrates. Researchers in the UK are finding that even ants—which are invertebrates, meaning they have exoskeletons—carry an innate directional bias, in their case almost always turning left when exploring new territory, reports Science Daily. "The ants may be using their left eye to detect predators and their right to navigate," says a researcher. "Also, their world is maze-like, and consistently turning one way is a very good strategy to search and exit mazes." And since everybody is turning the same way, the researcher says there's also "safety in numbers. Perhaps leaning left is more shrewd than sinister." Either way, better understanding these tendencies in invertebrates could help shed light on the behavior in more complex creatures—even including humans, reports Smithsonian. (Check out this ant's secret weapon.)