A “remarkably well-preserved” fossil discovered in Brazil, dating back 113 million years, is now the oldest ant to have ever been found by scientists, a new study has revealed. The ancient fossil was found preserved in a limestone and “represents the earliest undisputed ant known to science,” the authors write in the study.
wolfyvegan in biodiversity
World’s oldest ant fossil found in Brazil, dating back 113 million years
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/worlds-oldest-ant-fossil-found-in-brazil-dating-back-113-million-years/archived (Wayback Machine):
Weird synchronicity, I was just watching ants hard at work the other day and found myself wondering how long they had been around.
You might say that it’s… anciANT 😎
Too bad the article doesn't say how big this is
In the article linked as "statement", there's an image with a scale:
https://lemmy.ml/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmediasvc.eurekalert.org%2FApi%2Fv1%2FMultimedia%2F762e235f-6844-4ee5-951b-34699b5396b7%2FRendition%2Flow-res%2FContent%2FPublic
Thank you! The Mongabay article removed the scale in the pictures.
Back from the article to report this thing is called a HELL ant and had scythes. Back then was badass
Ant?
Hell (!) yeah! They sound awesome :O