• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Lifestyle
Oldest army ant ever discovered reveals iconic predator once raided Europe thumbnail

Oldest army ant ever discovered reveals iconic predator once raided Europe

November 24, 2022
Chuck Todd: Trump 'openly admitting that he's politicizing law enforcement thumbnail

Chuck Todd: Trump ‘openly admitting that he’s politicizing law enforcement

June 17, 2025
ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts thumbnail

ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts

June 15, 2025
Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control thumbnail

Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control

June 14, 2025
Red Sox To Acquire Jorge Alcala thumbnail

Red Sox To Acquire Jorge Alcala

June 13, 2025
Red Sox Rookie Roman Anthony's Sister Steals Spotlight At Game thumbnail

Red Sox Rookie Roman Anthony’s Sister Steals Spotlight At Game

June 12, 2025
Boston Consulting Group CEO apologizes for Israeli-backed Gaza aid project thumbnail

Boston Consulting Group CEO apologizes for Israeli-backed Gaza aid project

June 10, 2025
'Crazy, unreliable leadership': Democrats condemn Trump's national guard deployment to LA – video thumbnail

‘Crazy, unreliable leadership’: Democrats condemn Trump’s national guard deployment to LA – video

June 10, 2025
Trump is using every weapon at his disposal for revenge thumbnail

Trump is using every weapon at his disposal for revenge

June 10, 2025
Democrats Want To Welcome South African ‘Nazi’ Back With Open Arms thumbnail

Democrats Want To Welcome South African ‘Nazi’ Back With Open Arms

June 9, 2025
New England serial killer fears stoked by 13th body found in small town thumbnail

New England serial killer fears stoked by 13th body found in small town

June 8, 2025
Red Sox at Yankees prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends, and stats for June 6 thumbnail

Red Sox at Yankees prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends, and stats for June 6

June 7, 2025
Jasmine Crockett: Republicans Want to Put Me ‘Back in Chains’ – But I've Got Something to Protect Me thumbnail

Jasmine Crockett: Republicans Want to Put Me ‘Back in Chains’ – But I’ve Got Something to Protect Me

June 7, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
66 °f
Wellfleet
58 ° Tue
63 ° Wed
68 ° Thu
61 ° Fri
  • Login
  • Register
FREE Cape Cod News
DONATE
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Free Cape Cod News
No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • Cape Cod News
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
  • Videos
Home Lifestyle Nature

Oldest army ant ever discovered reveals iconic predator once raided Europe

FREE Cape Cod News by FREE Cape Cod News
November 24, 2022
in Nature, Outdoors
Reading Time: 5 mins read
Donate
0
Oldest army ant ever discovered reveals iconic predator once raided Europe thumbnail
633
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
Oldest army ant ever discovered reveals iconic predator once raided Europe
Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology and Colorado State University have reported the discovery of the oldest army ant on record, preserved in Baltic amber dating to the Eocene (~35 million years ago). Credit: Sosiak et al. 2022, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; ©President and Fellows of Harvard College

Their nomadic lifestyle and ravenous raiding have taken army ants (Dorylinae) to most continents on Earth, but a rare fossil discovery is now offering first evidence that the infamous predators once swarmed a land they are strikingly absent from today—Europe.

In the journal Biology Letters, researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology and Colorado State University have reported the discovery of the oldest army ant on record, preserved in Baltic amber dating to the Eocene (about 35 million years ago).

The eyeless specimen Dissimulodorylus perseus (D. perseus)—named after the mythical Greek hero Perseus, who famously defeated Medusa with the limited use of sight—marks just the second fossil army ant species ever described, and the first army ant fossil recovered from the Eastern Hemisphere.

Sized at roughly 3 millimeters in length, researchers say the ant fossil brings to light previously unknown army ant lineages that would have existed across continental Europe before undergoing extinction in the past 50 million years.

Remarkably, the fossil had been kept in obscurity for nearly 100 years in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, before being identified by the paper’s lead author and NJIT Ph.D. candidate, Christine Sosiak.

“The museum houses hundreds of drawers full of insect fossils, but I happened to come across a tiny specimen labeled as a common type of ant while gathering data for another project,” said Sosiak. “Once I put the ant under the microscope, I immediately realized the label was inaccurate … I thought, this is something really different.”

“This amber would have been excavated around or before the 1930s, so to now learn it contained a rare army ant is surprising enough, much less one that demonstrates these ants roamed Europe,” said Phillip Barden, assistant professor of biology at NJIT and senior author of the paper. “From everything we know about army ants living today, there’s no hint of such extinct diversity. … With this fossil now out of obscurity, we’ve gained a rare paleontological porthole into the history of these unique predators.”

A paleontological porthole into a unique predator’s history

Today, there are about 270 army ant species living in the Eastern Hemisphere, and roughly 150 across North and South America.

Based on X-ray and CT-scan analysis of the fossil, the NJIT team gathered phylogenetic and morphological data that places D. perseus as a close relative to eyeless species of army ants currently found in Africa and Southern Asia, called Dorylus.

“At the time the fossil formed, Europe was hotter and wetter than it is today and may have provided an ideal habitat for ancient army ants,” said Barden. “Europe underwent several cooling cycles over tens of millions of years since the Eocene, however, which may have been inhospitable to these tropical-adapted species.”

The team’s analysis further revealed that the ant possessed an enlarged antibiotic gland, typically found in other army ants for sustaining life underground, suggesting the long-lost European army ant lineage was similarly suited to subterranean living.

It’s a factor Sosiak says makes this fossil and other fossil army ants a rarity. Only one definitive fossil had been recorded until now, unearthed from the Caribbean (16 ~Ma.).

Oldest army ant ever discovered reveals iconic predator once raided Europe
Reconstruction of D. perseus from NJIT’s Barden Lab shows anatomical similarities with certain army ants alive today. Credit: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; ©President and Fellows of Harvard College

“This was an incredibly lucky find. Because this ant was probably subterranean like most army ants today, it was much less likely to come into contact with tree resin that forms such fossils,” said Sosiak. “We have a very small window into the history of life on our planet, and unusual fossils such as this provide fresh insight.”

Sosiak says the anatomical traits of D. perseus—including its sharply pointed mandibles and lack of eyes—help classify the specimen as a worker ant in its colony, which would have been involved in carrying its queen’s larvae and raiding for food with soldier ants when it was alive.

“Army ant workers participate in raiding swarms, hunting other insects and even vertebrates. Because these army ants are blind, they use chemical communication to stay coordinated with one another to take down large prey,” explained Sosiak. “This worker may have strayed too far from its fellow hunters and into sticky tree resin, which eventually solidified and encased the ant as we see it today.”

Army ants’ distinct combination of behavior and traits is so unusual in the ant world that it’s warranted its own name—army ant syndrome.

In contrast with other ant lineages, army ants have wingless queens capable of laying millions of eggs a day, while their nomadic colonies temporarily occupy nests between phases of travel that take the shape of bivouacs, sometimes involving millions of ants stretching for 100 miles.

The carnivores are perhaps best known for their highly coordinated foraging that can involve consuming upwards of 500,000 prey a day.

Barden says army ant syndrome is a case of convergent evolution that would have occurred twice—once in the Neotropics and once in the Afrotropics.

“The discovery is the first physical evidence of the army ant syndrome in the Eocene, establishing that hallmarks of these specialized predators were in place even before the ancestors of certain army ants like Dorylus,” said Barden.

For now, the newly identified fossil joins just eight fossil species within the ant subfamily that army ants belong to, called Dorylinae—five from Dominican amber (16 ~Ma.), and three species known from Baltic amber (34 ~Ma.).

Read More

Tags: europelifestylewildlife

FREE Digital Newspaper Subscription!
Sign up for your free digital subscription. The FREE Cape Cod News

Unsubscribe
FREE Cape Cod News

FREE Cape Cod News

Free Cape Cod News is what's happening in the Cape Cod, U.S and World & what people are talking about right now. Local newspaper. Stay in the know. Subscribe to get notified about our latest news.

Related Posts

Humpback whales can give birth while migrating thousands of miles thumbnail
Nature

Humpback whales can give birth while migrating thousands of miles

by FREE Cape Cod News
May 22, 2025
Scientists discover how some flowers mimic the smell of death thumbnail
Nature

Scientists discover how some flowers mimic the smell of death

by FREE Cape Cod News
May 10, 2025
Is there really alien life on this exoplanet? We asked 10 experts. thumbnail
Nature

Is there really alien life on this exoplanet? We asked 10 experts.

by FREE Cape Cod News
April 21, 2025
Mammals Became More Terrestrial Towards End of Cretaceous Period, Study Shows thumbnail
Nature

Mammals Became More Terrestrial Towards End of Cretaceous Period, Study Shows

by FREE Cape Cod News
April 4, 2025
Load More
Please login to join discussion

Follow Us on Twitter

FREE Cape Cod News - Your source for local Cape Cod news, latest breaking U.S. and World news. Every day, all day. Subscribe for your favorite categories.

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Red Sox Rookie Roman Anthony's Sister Steals Spotlight At Game thumbnail

Red Sox Rookie Roman Anthony’s Sister Steals Spotlight At Game

June 12, 2025
Saying 'Yes' to Everything Can Stall Your Growth. Here's How to Say 'No' Without Burning Bridges. thumbnail

Saying ‘Yes’ to Everything Can Stall Your Growth. Here’s How to Say ‘No’ Without Burning Bridges.

May 25, 2025

Uncommon May nor’easter brings rain and snow to New England states just before Memorial Day weekend

May 23, 2025
Chuck Todd: Trump 'openly admitting that he's politicizing law enforcement thumbnail

Chuck Todd: Trump ‘openly admitting that he’s politicizing law enforcement

0
ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts thumbnail

ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts

0
Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control thumbnail

Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control

0
Chuck Todd: Trump 'openly admitting that he's politicizing law enforcement thumbnail

Chuck Todd: Trump ‘openly admitting that he’s politicizing law enforcement

June 17, 2025
ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts thumbnail

ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts

June 15, 2025
Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control thumbnail

Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control

June 14, 2025

FREE Cape Cod News On Twitter

Today’s News

  • Chuck Todd: Trump ‘openly admitting that he’s politicizing law enforcement June 17, 2025
  • ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts June 15, 2025
  • Judge says Trump illegally deployed National Guard to help with LA protests, must return control June 14, 2025
  • Red Sox To Acquire Jorge Alcala June 13, 2025
  • Red Sox Rookie Roman Anthony’s Sister Steals Spotlight At Game June 12, 2025
FREE Cape Cod News

Copyright © 2024 Free Cape Cod News

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
  • Login
  • Sign Up

Copyright © 2024 Free Cape Cod News