A prehistoric ant stuck in amber has been torturing its prey for 99 million years

A prehistoric ant stuck in amber has been torturing its prey for 99 million years
A prehistoric ant stuck in amber has been torturing its prey for 99 million years
Anonim

A unique piece of amber was found in Myanmar, capturing a breathtaking scene.

Today, there are about 15,000 species of ants on the planet, and these are only those species that have been identified and described by scientists. According to their estimates, about 10,000 more of these arthropods will have to be identified in the near future.

The variety of these creatures is also indicated by the fossilized remains of their ancestors. Among them, a group stands out, which scientists informally call hell ants. These include 16 species, 14 of which have been discovered in recent decades.

Hell ants are known from amber deposits that date back 78-100 million years ago. These are unusual insects with anatomical features that distinguish them from any species living on Earth today.

One of these ants was found in 2017 in Kachin state in Myanmar. Moreover, paleontologists were fortunate enough to study not only the ant itself, but also its prey, which the predator clung to with its powerful jaws, before both participants in the scene were not frozen in amber forever.

This fierce predator is a recently identified species of prehistoric ant known as Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, and this is the first time we're seeing a hellish ant actively feeding, according to scientists. Its food is an extinct relative of the cockroach Caputoraptor elegans.

While the mandibles (lower jaw in vertebrates, mandibles in insects) of modern ants move in a horizontal plane, the mandibles of hell ants move vertically, like human jaws.

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The structure of the head of a hellish ant

The study's lead author, Philip Barden of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, explained that C. ellenbergeri used a long horn and jaw to grab its prey by the neck.

“As soon as the victim was captured in this way, the ant most likely switched to an immobilizing bite. The way the prey was captured confirms that the hell ants moved their mouths vertically and not horizontally, as we see in living ants and, in fact, in all insects.”- Philippe Barden.

According to Barden, this vertical movement of the mandible led to the development of all manner of strange horns and other mouthpieces in this ancient lineage.

The hell ants are believed to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. Barden says that seeing the hell ants attacking prey can help you understand how these creatures, which he calls "evolutionary experiments," came about and how they differ from the ant species living today.

Based on the different mouth and head shapes of these ancient ants, the researchers believe that each species captured and killed prey differently.

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