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Title : Ant Warfare: Fossils Reveal Insects Locked in Mortal Combat
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Ant Warfare: Fossils Reveal Insects Locked in Mortal Combat

id = " A strange world of ants and termites well armored warriors have been found preserved in amber . Fossil insect entombed in amber Burmese Myanmar, dating from 99 million years ago for ants and 100 million years for termites. Fossils reveal the surprising sociability of these insects very early in their development. Ants are grouped with others of their species and, in one case, engage in battle pitched jaw-jaw. Termites show different adaptations body of soldiers and workers, a hallmark of specialty papers. "Until now, the oldest [termite] soldiers knew were about 20 million years, so we have 80 million years more than one record, "said researcher Philip Barden, a postdoctoral scientist at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York. termites Tough Termites are the oldest social animal group known Barden told Live Science, and fossil and genetic evidence suggests that emerged in the Cretaceous period early, it made between 146 million and 100 million years. They found termite fossils of more than 100 million years, he said, but only winged reproductive termites. Samples of amber from Burma, who are in the AMNH collection, are the oldest evidence of caste. termite colonies today, as in the Cretaceous are composed of winged reproductive individuals, workers responsible for building tunnels and gathering food and soldiers responsible for the defense. Workers and soldiers are easy to distinguish, Barden said, because workers are smooth and featureless, and soldiers have, hard and strong jaws distinctive heads. [Gallery: Out-of-This-World Images of Insects] "A worker is simply too killable, and the soldier is like an armored tank one thing," Barden said. Online reports February 11 in the journal Current Biology , researchers christened one of the newly discovered species found in amber Gigantotermes rex . Termite was almost an inch (2 centimeters) long, with thick jaws. Another new species. Krishnatermes yoddha , owes its name to the late researcher Krishna Kumar termites and the Hindu word "Yod'dha" or warrior. The three breeds of K . yoddha were found, including a headstrong soldier, a much more fragile and reproductive termite worker with diaphanous wings. is interesting to find a clear delineation of functions such as early in the development of termites, ants, because - main nemesis termites. - Were not yet ecologically dominant 100 million years ago, Barden said "it seems that the termite soldier caste is not necessarily to address these first ants" he said. "I was already well developed when the ants were taking class of its baby steps." ancient ants These baby steps ants were exposed in a work which was also published online in the journal Current Biology. Barden and his colleagues examined fossils ant Burmese amber 99 million years ago, only 1 million years younger than the oldest known fossils of ants, which were found in France. The ants probably evolved about 50 million years before these fossils, Jurassic late Cretaceous or early, but have not found fossils of that period. The new fossils reveal that 99 million years ago, the ants were social; although they represent only 1 percent of the fossils of insects found in amber, grouped much more frequently than would be expected by chance. For example, the probability that a specimen held 11 Gerontoformica spiralis ants and one Haidomyrmex zigrasi ant exist for casual therefore is 1 in 31 quadrillion, researchers reported . Another piece of amber containing 21 ants three different species. Another species of ant just described Cretaceous Myanmar, Gerontoformica mauradarus, had ferocious jaws
Credit :. Copyright AMNH / D. P. Grimaldi and Barden View full size image One of the most impressive fossil workers captured two species G. spiralis and G. Tendir , locked in mortal combat with his clenched jaws forming appendages each. Before they could emerge victorious, amber wrapped battle, freezing in place. The discovery of the ant "war" is only one line of evidence showing a complex social behavior in these insects, Barden said. The researchers also found fossilized workers and queens, revealing that these specializations already exist in ant colonies in the Cretaceous. The discovery was also exciting, Barden said, because ants are so alien pests compared with assault kitchen furniture today. Take Haidomyrmex genre. These extinct ants had huge jaws that can be closed to impale their prey, Barden said. Haidomyrmex (which means "ant hell") survived for at least 20 million years, and their specializations suggest that it may have depended on a particular but unknown type of prey. Another species, recently described samples Burma, had a head of camel-like mouthparts and covered with sharp strange hairs. "It seems almost like 'Predator' films," Barden said. These ants lost along bloodlines are today are the dinosaurs to modern birds, Barden said - first adaptations that have now been lost. He and his colleagues are now studying more fossil Burma, as well as the genetics of modern insects to understand how these creatures and their social structures evolved. "Fossils can be very enlightening to learn about things that are alive today," Barden said. "And living things today and genes within them can be very enlightening to learn about how they lived these things first."
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