A fossil overlooked for years in a museum in Brazil has turned out to be the oldest known ant to date, pushing their history back about 10 million years than previously believed, writes A2 CNN. According to a study published in the journal Current Biology, this ant lived about 113 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, at a time when dinosaurs still dominated the Earth.
The fossil was found in a collection at the Museum of Zoology at the University of São Paulo by researcher Anderson Lepeco, who called the discovery “extraordinary.” The fossilized insect, preserved in a limestone rock in northeastern Brazil, belonged to a group called hell ants, which are unrelated to modern ants.
The new species, named Vulcanidris cratensis, had sickle-shaped jaws that it probably used to capture or pierce prey. This hunting method is very different from that of modern ants, which use their jaws to grab sideways.
Such fossils are usually found in amber, not in stone. Until now, hell ants had only been found in amber from Myanmar and France, and dated to about 99 million years ago. The presence of this ant in Brazil suggests that they were spread around the world earlier than previously thought.
The discovery not only marks the oldest known ant, but also helps scientists better understand the early evolution of these insects and the reasons why some of their anatomical features did not survive to the present day. (A2 Televizion)
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