Prehistoric ant preserved in amber reveals Caribbean's vanished species
The newly discovered species of "dirt ant" -- named for its ability to camouflage itself with soil -- was found frozen in time in amber from the Dominican Republic, according to research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"Finding one today is exciting given how well they stay hidden, but captured in amber, it's like finding a diamond," lead researcher Gianpiero Fiorentino, a Ph.D. candidate at the Barden Lab at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), said in a release.
These mysterious ants, known scientifically as Basiceros, were previously only thought to exist in rainforests from Costa Rica to Southern Brazil.
The ancient specimen, dubbed Basiceros enana, was notably tinier than its modern relatives, measuring just 5.13 mm long -- nearly half the size of today's dirt ants, the scientists noted in the release.
"They almost doubled in size in the span of 20 million years," Fiorentino said. "Previous theories suggested these ants were originally large and got smaller over time, so this completely changes our understanding."
MORE: Egypt discovers first royal tomb in over 100 years
Dirt ants have an incredible camouflage ability and can coat themselves with soil particles using specialized body hairs to blend perfectly into their environment, they said in the release. The fossil shows this clever disguise technique existed at least 16 million years ago, it noted.
"What this shows is that playing dead and hiding pays off," Fiorentino said.
The research team used advanced 3D imaging technology to find the ancient ant had many features similar to modern dirt ants, including distinctive mandibles with 12 triangular teeth for catching prey.
Dr. Phil Barden, associate professor of biology at NJIT and senior author of the study, said changing environments likely played a role in these insects disappearing from the Caribbean.
"This fossil is a piece of a larger puzzle that will help us understand why some groups of organisms undergo extinction and others stick it out for millions of years," Barden said in the release.
The implications reach beyond just understanding these insects, the scientists said. Fiorentino noted that over a third of ant species have gone extinct in what is now the Dominican Republic since this amber formed.
"Understanding what has driven this pattern of local extinction is crucial to mitigating modern human-driven extinction and protecting biodiversity," he said.
Prehistoric ant preserved in amber reveals Caribbean's vanished species originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
a day ago
- The Hill
National parks animals are changing their habits in response to humans: Study
The persistent presence of humans and their infrastructure in U.S. national parks has yielded dramatic changes in the behaviors of large animals who live there, a new study has found. Even during the pandemic-era lockdowns that briefly closed parks to humans in 2020, large animals at most sites continued to avoid human-built roadways and facilities, according to the study, published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. This wasn't true in all cases, as animals in more developed areas did switch from avoiding human infrastructure in 2019 to using it more in 2020, per the study. But across all parks and species — particularly in remote areas — the avoidance behavior generally persisted. 'Wildlife all around the world fear people and avoid areas of high human activity,' lead author Kaitlyn Gaynor, a zoologist at the University of British Columbia, said in a statement. 'But it was surprising to see that this holds true even in more remote protected areas,' Gaynor added. To understand these behaviors, the researchers evaluated GPS collar data for 229 animals from 10 species across 14 national parks and protected areas, from 2019 to 2020. Using this range of dates, they explained, allowed for an assessment as to how animals navigated human activity hubs in parks both before and during what they described as a COVID 'Anthropause' — a time with far fewer human visitors. The species of interest included gray wolves, mountain lions, black and grizzly bears, moose, mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Overall, the researchers found that animals tended to avoid infrastructure like roads, trails, parking lots, buildings and campgrounds, although these inclinations varied among populations, species and individuals. For example, animals located in more developed areas were more willing to explore those places without any people around in 2020, according to the study. Managers at Yosemite, for example, told the researchers that even after people came back following pandemic-era closures, the black bears stuck around — causing problems. 'The bears got used to the abundant food in Yosemite Valley and didn't want to give it up,' Gaynor said. But although some populations, like the Yosemite black bears, showed a robust response to park shutdowns, she stressed that 'most did not.' 'Because a lot of headlines in 2020 implied that animals were taking back our national parks and were on the streets everywhere, we expected to see a bigger effect,' Gaynor said. 'But it takes just a few individuals to start changing their behavior to create the perception of a larger impact.' The researchers also hypothesized that due to the relatively short length of the pandemic closures — which on average lasted about 58 days — many animals may have lacked the time necessary to perceive and react to shifts in human activity. They also speculated that risk-averse animals may have already been displaced before the pandemic began — meaning that those with greater exposure to humans may have already been habituated to their presence. Addressing these differences in response, co-author Forest Hayes, a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University, noted 'the complex ways that animals balance risks and benefits associated with humans.' Echoing these sentiments, Gaynor said that 'some species are just more wary of people than others, like bighorn sheep and mountain lions, while others have learned to associate humans with some benefit.' For example, she explained, mule deer and elk at Zion National Park tend to linger around humans in developed areas, possibly as a way of avoiding their predators. Emphasizing the varying responses of animals to human presence, the authors noted the conflicting but coexisting interests of park recreation and conservation activities. These responses, they added, can shape how species compete — prompting changes in ecosystem dynamics and affecting how animals persist alongside people. 'This study provides evidence that conservation is compatible with recreation at low levels but that we do need to keep some areas exclusively for wildlife,' Gaynor said.
15-07-2025
99-million-year-old 'zombie' fungi found preserved in amber, scientists say
Scientists have discovered two new species of ancient parasitic fungi preserved in amber dating back 99 million years. The fungi were growing out of the bodies of host insects that became trapped in globs of amber during the mid-Cretaceous period, according to a paper published last month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "It's fascinating to see some of the strangeness of the natural world that we see today was also present at the height of the age of the dinosaurs," said Edmund Jarzembowski, a paleoentomologist at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and co-author of the study, in a statement. The species of fungi that were growing out of the body of a young ant in its cocoon stage was named Paleoophiocordyceps gerontoformicae, while another species found bursting from the body of an ancient fly was named Paleoophiocordyceps ironomyiae. Entomopathogenic fungi can infect a wide range of insect groups, including ants, flies, spiders, cicadas and beetles, scientists say. The discovery represents the oldest-known examples of parasitic fungi that infect insects, the researchers said. Throughout their 400 million years of coexistence, fungi have proved to be an important regulator of insect populations. "As the infections are lethal, Ophiocordyceps likely played an important role in controlling the populations of insects by the Mid-Cretaceous, in a similar way to how their living counterparts do today," Jarzembowski said. Little is known about ancient entomopathogenic fungi due to the scarcity of fossils that display typical pathogenic structures on their hosts, according to the paper. The newly discovered species of fungi shared common traits with modern species of Ophiocordyceps, a group of fungi that contains the zombie-ant fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, according to the paper. The groups may have diverged from each other about 130 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous period, the researchers said. The discovery represents the oldest-known examples of parasitic fungi that infect insects, the researchers said. More than 1,500 species of parasitic fungi are currently found in five of the eight major groups of fungi, according to the Natural History Museum in London. O. unilateralis is known for infecting the brain of its hosts and manipulating the insect's behavior -- forcing it to seek more favorable conditions so that the fungi can thrive, the researchers said. Once the ant dies, the fungus grows outside of its body and releases millions of spores to infect more ants. The Zombie-ant fungi was the premise of the post-apocalyptic television series "The Last of Us." "This discovery shows the impact of tiny organisms on social animals long before humans evolved -- with the comforting thought that these tiny organisms are unlikely to jump to us, unlike in sci-fi films!" Jarzembowski said. The specimens are being housed at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Yahoo
'Zombie' Fungus Caught Bursting From Host Bodies 99 Million Years Ago
Scientists have caught ancient parasitic fungi in the act of bursting from insect hosts, in dramatic scenes frozen in amber. Dating back almost 100 million years, these two specimens are among the oldest evidence of 'zombie' fungus, second only to one early-Cretaceous species discovered back in 2008. Amber forms over millions of years from the sticky resin of trees, and is renowned for the many bizarre, unique, and enlightening moments it has preserved. These two pieces, now in the hands of the London Natural History Museum, include the new fungus species Paleoophiocordyceps gerontoformicae, with its tiny spore stalks sprouting from the body of a pupating ant, and P. ironomyiae, in the form of a singular, phallic fruiting body protruding from a fly's head. Related: These newfound species appear to share traits with living relatives, Ophiocordyceps, that continue to infect insects as a means of spreading their spores. Scientists think the Paleoophiocordyceps species may have separated from Ophiocordyceps around 130 million years ago. "The fossil evidence shows that the infectious fungi were already adapted to two different insect hosts a hundred million years ago, an ant and a true fly," says paleoentomologist Edmund Jarzembowski from the Natural History Museum. "This suggests that the fungus made this jump to other insects as they diversified with the rise of flowering plants and new insect groups, especially moths and butterflies." The research is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 100-Million-Year-Old Rock Reveals 40 Never-Before-Seen Squid Species Sea Slugs Steal Body Parts From Prey to Gain Their Powers Earth Is Pulsing Beneath Africa Where The Crust Is Being Torn Apart
