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Amber Fossil Reveals Hunting Prowess of Ancient 'Hell Ant'

posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 10 2020, @01:23PM   
from the who-is-Amber-Fossil? dept.

"MrPlow" writes:

Submitted via IRC for RandomFactor

An ancient amber fossil has offered scientists new insights into the deadly hunting prowess of the "hell ant" species Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri.

The 99-million-year-old amber, unearthed in Myanmar, trapped a member of the Haidomyrmecine subfamily -- the group known as hell ants -- just as the predator snatched a cockroach relative with its scythe-like mandibles.

Animal behavior rarely becomes fossilized, and fossilized hunting behavior is especially elusive. The hell ant fossil, described Thursday in the journal Current Biology, is a one-of-a-kind find.

Journal Reference:
Phillip Barden. Specialized Predation Drives Aberrant Morphological Integration and Diversity in the Earliest Ants, Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.106)

Source: https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/08/06/Amber-fossil-reveals-hunting-prowess-of-ancient-hell-ant/3761596726657/

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Original Submission

• Re:technically speaking Re:technically speaking (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @05:18PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @05:18PM (#1034403)

  They were both inept. They both ended-up dead in amber, didn't they ?

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• Re:technically speaking (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @04:29AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @04:29AM (#1034735)

  Caught by a fucking tree! And preserved for 6.7 billion years or whatever to be laughed at on the internet by another species. The humiliation.

  Parent