Anderson Lepeco
It had jaws like scythes to grind the prey. An ant fossil with millions of years rewrite the whole history of this animal.
“Our team discovered a new species of fossil ant that represents the oldest unquestionable geological record of ants,” begins by explaining scientist Anderson Lepeco to.
“What makes this discovery particularly interesting is the fact that belong to the extinct ‘ant of hell’, known for their bizarre predatory adaptations. Despite being part of an old lineage, this species already presented highly specialized anatomical characteristicssuggesting unique hunting behaviors, ”he says.
“Although they have already been described in amber ants, this was the first time we could see them in a rock fossil,” Lepeco said.
According to investigators, this fossil challenges the ideas we had about the evolution of ants and its historical distribution. This is because the fact that it was found in Brazil reveals that the species had already spread through regions that we once did not know.
More interesting, the authors of this month tell in the magazine Current Biology, It is really the morphology of this animal. – This species had sickle -shaped jawsthat destroyed the prey.
Unlike modern ants, with laterally moving jaws, this species had jaws that advanced parallel to the head and a facial projection before the eyes. Managed to investigate all this thanks to microcomputed tomographya 3D image technique that uses x -rays to view the interior of an object.
“Finding an anatomically specialized ant like this, from 113 million years ago, challenges our assumptions about how quickly these insects developed complex adaptations. Intricated morphology suggests that even these older ants had already developed sophisticated predatory strategies, significantly different from its modern counterparts ”.
