According to the scientists, this ferocious predator is a newly identified prehistoric ant species with the scientific name Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri. This is also the first time that scientists have found a hunting hell ant trapped in amber. Its meal is an extinct relative of the cockroach.
Ants are among the most diverse creatures on Earth. So far, scientists have identified more than 12,500 different species and they think perhaps 10,000 more have yet to be discovered.
Remarkably, of all the ants known today, none looked like what scientists found in amber mines from Myanmar, Canada and France.
In fact, Phillip Barden, a researcher from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), said that the mouths of the hell ants are not the same as those of nearly all living insects today. This newly identified hell ant used its lower part to move upwards and fasten its prey to the paddle like the horn above.
Other hell ants discovered in the past also have horns. While scientists suggest it could be a kind of clamp, this 99 million-year-old fossil is the first real-world proof of that.
Contrary to ancient ants, modern ants and almost all other living triasses had lower molars that only moved on a horizontal axis.
"Since the first hell ants were unearthed about a hundred years ago, it remains a mystery why these extinct animals are so different from the ants we have today. amber reveals the mechanism behind what we might call an "evolutionary experiment." Although we see many such experiments in the fossil record, often there is no clear picture of the path. evolution leads to them, "explains Phillip Barden.
Scientists say that the real hell prejudice predates the most common ancestor of all living ants, and even then, they are extremely diverse.
While modern ants look very different, they have mouths facing forward, keeping their heads relatively parallel to the ground, although they can look around. But hell ants are almost unable to move their heads, they can only catch prey with their mouth facing down.
