This worker “hell ant” was taken prisoner of amber 99 million years ago. It holds a Caputoraptor elegance nymph.
NJIT, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Rennes, France
Murder hornets. Deadpool “killer” flees. Zombie cicadas. This year has been strange when it comes to insects, but I have some good news. At least “helmets” are extinct.
Haidomyrmecine (“helm ants”) lived during the Cretaceous. One of these small, alien creatures was discovered trapped in 99 million years old amber. But that’s not all. This particular specimen was found with a nymph of a cockroach-like insect stiff in the grip.
The startling scene of an ancient predation effort has opened a window to the past for a team of researchers led by evolutionary biologist Phillip Barden of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Barden is the lead author of a study on half ants that appeared Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
The newly discovered antelope is called Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri.
This illustration gives a clearer look at what happens to the helmet in amber.
NJIT, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Rennes, France
According to a NJIT release, the specimen presents “some of the first direct evidence to show how it and other half-ants once used their killer functions – their bizarre but deadly, heart-shaped mandibles snapped in a vertical motion to pinch prey their horny attachments. ”
Modern ants use a lateral movement to grab their prey, which makes ants like this all the smell.
An illustrated version of the ant and nymph gives a clearer view of the unusual physical functions of the ant and how it adheres to its prey.
“This fossil predation confirms our hypothesis for how hell ant molds worked,” Barden said. “The only way to catch prey in such an arrangement is for the ants of ants to move up and down in a direction other than that of all living ants and almost all insects.”
An erection of a spider, and other cool things sitting in amber
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Barden described this unusual mouth mechanism as an “evolutionary experiment.” The researcher has researched and described other types of ants, including a horn ant named after Vlad the Impaler.
These long-gone insects are fascinating creatures, and Barden is still envious of why ants died out. “I think fossil insects are a reminder that even something so solely and exclusively known as ants has gone extinct,” he said.
