While you might think that emmet are widespreadacross the cosmos , army ant species have been notably absent from Europe . These voracious piranha are far-famed for concerted foraging in massive group capable of consuming over half a million quarry items in a day . However , the discovery of ant species preserved in gold shows that the oldest regular army ant in the world lived across Europe around 35 million geezerhood ago .
“ We did n’t think they were in Europe , " Christine Sosiak , the paper ’s lead story generator and New Jersey Institute of Technology PhD campaigner , toldNew Scientist . “ It ’s really completely unheard of to find them there . And yet here we have this army ant , from so far back in account ! "
The ant in interrogative had been observe in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University for nearly 100 geezerhood after being mislabeled as a common ant species . Preserved in Baltic amber , this specimen dates back to theEoceneand is only the 2d - ever US Army ant fogy to be described and the first to be recovered from the Eastern Hemisphere .
Reconstruction of D. perseus from NJIT’s Barden Lab. Image Credit: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; ©President and Fellows of Harvard College
“ I happened to come up across a tiny specimen labelled as a common character of pismire while gathering data for another task , ” enounce Sosiak in astatement . “ Once I put the ant under the microscope , I like a shot realized the recording label was inaccurate … I conceive , this is something really different . ”
Only 3 millimetre ( 0.1 inches ) long , the fogy is calledDissimulodorylus perseus , an eyeless species named after Perseus from the ancient Greek tales of the bomber that defeated Medusa without looking directly at her . The fossil play up the antecedently unknown ancestry of ancestry of army emmet that would have creep around Europe before their extinction .
By guide photography and CT rake analysis of the preserved specimen , the squad think thatD. perseusis a close congenator of a metal money calledDorylus , which is found in Africa and Southern Asia . The team also let out thatD. perseushad an blown-up metapleural gland , suggesting that this species had a like subterranean life-style and lived in enceinte colonies .
" Because these army emmet are unreasoning , they use chemical communication to stay coordinated with one another to take down gravid quarry , ” explained Sosiak . “ This worker may have rove too far from its fellow hunters and into awkward Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree resin , which finally solidify and encased the pismire as we see it today . ”
The paper is issue inBiology Letters .
