Fossil discovery shows how ancient ‘hell ants’ hunted

[FfFfFfFF 58,135]

Researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Rennes in France have unveiled a stunning 99-million-year-old fossil pristinely preserving an enigmatic insect predator from the Cretaceous Period — a ‘hell ant’ (haidomyrmecine) — as it embraced its unsuspecting final victim, an extinct relative of the cockroach known as Caputoraptor elegans.

The ancient encounter, locked in amber recovered from Myanmar, offers a detailed glimpse at a newly identified prehistoric ant species Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, and presents some of the first direct evidence showing how it and other hell ants once used their killer features — snapping their bizarre, but deadly, scythe-like mandibles in a vertical motion to pin prey against their horn-like appendages.

“Fossilized behavior is exceedingly rare, predation especially so. As paleontologists, we speculate about the function of ancient adaptations using available evidence, but to see an extinct predator caught in the act of capturing its prey is invaluable,” said Phillip Barden, assistant professor at NJIT’s Department of Biological Sciences and lead author of the study.

S: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/08/new-fossil-discovery-shows-how-ancient-hell-ants-hunted-with-headgear/134634

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

I hope I can be preserved for 99 million years