Historic Bug Story: How fiery hell ants pierced their prey 113 million years ago |

Image credit: Current Biology

In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists in Brazil have found the world’s oldest recognized ant fossil of a 113-million-year-old specimen of a fearsome predator referred to as a “hell ant.” Unearthed from limestone in northeastern Brazil, this fossil dramatically reshapes our understanding of ant evolution, pushing again their recognized historical past by over 13 million years. Published in Current Biology, the research reveals that ants had been already numerous and widespread in the course of the time of dinosaurs. With scythe-like jaws used to impale prey, this historical insect highlights how complicated and specialised ants had been, even in their earliest types.

What are hell ants

Hell ants are an extinct subfamily of ants recognized scientifically as Haidomyrmecinae. They lived in the course of the Cretaceous interval, between 145 and 66 million years ago. What makes them particularly fascinating is their distinctive jaw construction: as an alternative of transferring aspect to aspect like trendy ants, their scythe-shaped jaws curved upward and had been probably used to impale or pin down prey. This brutal searching methodology offers them their dramatic nickname.
These ants are among the many most anatomically distinct ever found and are thought of one of the crucial intriguing ant teams in evolutionary historical past.

What does the 113-year-old hell ant fossil reveal

The newly found fossil is a winged feminine ant, probably a queen, and was present in limestone deposits from the Crato Formation in northeastern Brazil. It has been named Vulcanidris cratensis, combining “Vulcano,” the identify of the household who donated the rock, and “idris,” a suffix generally utilized in ant taxonomy that means “the provident one.”
(*113*) 113 million years outdated, the fossil predates the beforehand oldest recognized ant specimens, present in amber in Myanmar and France, by roughly 13 million years.

How scientists peek into the fiery preying strategy of hell ants

Lead researcher Anderson Lepeco and his group on the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sao Paulo used a high-resolution 3D imaging method known as micro-computed tomography to look at the fossil trapped in limestone. This allowed scientists to check the insect’s inner buildings, significantly its jaws, in extraordinary element. when a small insect got here shut, the hell ant would rapidly snap its jaws shut in an upward movement, trapping the prey towards its horn. This motion would pierce or pin the prey in place, like a fork stabbing meals towards a plate.
This fashion of assault was very totally different from trendy ants, whose jaws often transfer aspect to aspect. Hell ants’ upward-striking jaws gave them an evolutionary edge in ambushing and killing prey.
“When I started to look at it and compared it to fossils from Myanmar, I was just shocked,” mentioned Lepeco. “I was very, very excited. I was jumping through the lab.”

The unimaginable world of ants

Ants have fascinated scientists for many years, not solely due to their historical origins but additionally as a result of their unimaginable capabilities as we speak. These tiny bugs are among the many most ecologically dominant animals on Earth, with an estimated inhabitants of practically 20 quadrillion. Found on each continent besides Antarctica, that’s about 2.5 million ants for each human on the planet.
They are recognized for their complicated social organisation, superior communication techniques, and even medical expertise. Some species can carry out amputations to avoid wasting wounded nestmates. Others may be educated to make use of their eager sense of scent to detect ailments resembling most cancers. Their intercourse lives and reproductive methods additionally shock researchers, making ants a very outstanding group within the animal kingdom.

Why this discovery issues

The fossil provides the earliest undisputed proof of ants in South America and pushes again the recognized presence of ants on the continent by over 60 million years. According to Corentin Jouault, an evolutionary biologist on the University of Oxford, this can be a breakthrough in paleomyrmecology, the research of historical ants. It additionally helps the speculation that ants had been already widespread in the course of the time of Gondwana, the traditional supercontinent that included present-day South America, Africa, India, and different landmasses.

What lies forward

Scientists now plan to increase their analysis by constructing a bigger database of historical ant fossils to raised perceive how ants advanced. This discovery additionally highlights the significance of museum collections, because the fossil was present in rocks that had been saved for years, unnoticed.
As researchers proceed to discover each subject websites and forgotten drawers in collections, the fiery story of hell ants serves as a reminder that a few of Earth’s most historic secrets and techniques are nonetheless ready to be uncovered.