A fossil of 113 million years old discovered in Brazil – Liberation

It is a major discovery, which rebels the cards of our knowledge of insects. A fossil discovered in the collection of a Brazilian museum has revealed the oldest specimen of ant known to science, reveals a study Published Thursday, April 24, in the journal Current Biology.

This prehistoric ant was lived Among the dinosaurs 113 million years ago – approximately 13 million years before the ants discoveries previously, reports the CNN channel. Anderson Lepeco, researcher at the Zoology Museum at the University of São Paulo, explains that she came across this specimen « extraordinary » In September 2024, when he examined a collection of fossils kept at the Zoology Museum at the University of São Paulo.

The museum has one of the largest collections of fossilized insects in the world and contains specimens of the formation of Crato, in northeast Brazil, a geological deposit renowned for its exceptional preservation of fossils. Preserved in limestone, the insect is an « ant of hell », a member of a subfamily called Haidomyrmecinae which lived in the Cretaceous, between 66 and 45 million years ago. It is not related to any ants living today.

This new species, which has been baptized Vulcanidris cratensishas false jaws that she probably used to pin or fill her prey. « I was shocked to see this bizarre projection at the front of this insect »details Anderson Lepeco, principal author of the study. « Other ants of hell have been described with strange mandibles, but these were still amber specimens. » Indeed, it is rare to find insects kept in rock, as is the case for this fossil. Other ants of the Cretaceous hell have been discovered in amber from France and Burma, but they date – only – about 99 million years.

This fossil is « Very important »abounds Phil Barden, associate professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who studies the history of the evolution of insects and who has not participated in the study. « This new discovery now represents the oldest known antique, and extended the known fossil register known for ants » by around ten million years « he added. « Although ants fossils have been described since the 19th century … Until now, it was not known if the absence of ants over 100 million years was due to the fact that they did not exist or simply to the fact that they were not preserved in deposits where we were looking for « he detailed.

From now on, we know that the ant of hell has lived long before, in the territory which is today Brazil. This means that these insects were already widespread on the planet at an early stage of their evolution, note the authors of the study.

Ants have long intrigued scientists by their extraordinary organizational skills, their surprising sexual life and their skills, including the amputation of their wounded to save their life and their extremely powerful smell. With nearly 20 quadrillions (one million power 4) of individuals spread over all continents except Antarctica – or 2.5 million for each human -, the specimen is one of the most visible and abundant insect groups on the planet.

They evolved at the end of the Jurassic and at the beginning of the Cretaceous, around 145 million years ago, when the ancestors of the ants diverged from the group which was going to give birth to the wasps and the bees. In fact, the fossilized anthill just discovery presents characteristics similar to those of wasps, which testifies to the common ancestry of the two insects.

The researchers have used a 3D imaging technique that uses X -rays to visualize the interior of the ant. Thus, they were able to observe its unusual anatomical characteristics. Modern ants have jaws that grip laterally, that is to say from one side to the other. However, this ant had jaws in the shape of false, parallel to the head and projected forward, near the eyes.

« It could have worked as a kind of forklift, moving upwards » While the ant was attacked in other insects, notes Anderson Lepeco. « Complex morphology suggests that even these oldest ants have already developed sophisticated predatory strategies very different from their modern counterparts. »