“Frozen in Time: Scientists Unveil Deadly Prehistoric ‘Hell Ant’ Mid-Meal in Stunning Amber Discovery”
According to Science Alert, the ant has been identified as a new prehistoric species that lived 99 million years ago named Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri. These prehistoric ants are typically known by their more ominous nickname, “hell ants.”
A study on this hell ant was published in the journal Current Biology.
The ant was uncovered inside a piece of Burmese amber while it was attacking its prey, which researchers also identified as an extinct relative to the modern cockroach. The two prehistoric insects were preserved intact in their struggle for nearly 100 million years.
Barden et alHell ant caught inside amber fossil with its prey (left) and a reconstruction of the specimen (right).
“Since the first hell ant was unearthed about a hundred years ago, it’s been a mystery as to why these extinct animals are so distinct from the ants we have today,” said Phillip Barden, who studies social insect evolution at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and is a co-author of a new study on the stunning hell ant specimen.
“This fossil reveals the mechanism behind what we might call an ‘evolutionary experiment,’ and although we see numerous such experiments in the fossil record, we often don’t have a clear picture of the evolutionary pathway that led to them.”
Indeed, though well-preserved early ant specimens are nothing new, this discovery is quite spectacular on its own for a number of reasons. Firstly, it provides researchers with clear evidence of the extinct species’ behavior, something that is extremely rare to find.
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