Photomicrograph from top view of the hell ant, Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, restraining its prey, an extinct cockroach relative called Caputoraptor elegans, preserved in amber.
Posted on 08/06/2020 12:52:33 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Around 99 million years ago, a juvenile cockroach met a hellish fate. It was snapped up by the jaws of a Cretaceous hell ant, a fierce predator with long, curving mandibles that swept up toward the top of the ant's head.
Just moments later, the ant and roach were trapped in sticky sap that eventually turned to amber, providing scientists with a first glimpse of how the weird-faced ants trapped prey.
The profile of a hell ant, with exaggerated upward-facing jaws that arc like the Grim Reaper's scythe, is unlike that of any ant alive today. Adding to the facial weirdness is a hell ant's horn, which comes in a variety of shapes in this ant group, known as Haidomyrmecine.
Researchers had long suspected that hell ants swung their prominent mandibles upward to catch their prey, unlike modern ants that snap their jaws together horizontally. In the piece of Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, scientists found the first confirmation of this hunting technique.
Hell ants lived during the Cretaceous period (about 145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago), and are known from amber deposits in Myanmar, France and Canada spanning 100 million to 78 million years ago...
Scientists described the first hell ant about a century ago, and have since identified 16 species — all of whom have elongated mandibles and horns.
Photomicrograph from top view of the hell ant, Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, restraining its prey, an extinct cockroach relative called Caputoraptor elegans, preserved in amber.
(Image: © From Barden, Perrichot, Wang 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.106)
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Great post. However, I got one word for you, Amdro Ant block. Got nothing for Hell Aunts, sorry.
Roger Clinton's kids would like something for a Hell Aunt you you do find anything.
I’m betting your right. A little Amdro in her oatmeal might be the ticket. LMAO
*ping*
We had a houseguest for awhile from Poland, who brought to me a string necklace of amber, probably 24 inches long. At least one stone has a creature captured in it. I used to use it as an object lesson in Sunday School on the subject of repentance.
Madame Speaker
How embarrassing would it be to be found in amber locked in combat with your ex?
Bahaha, indeed :)
How do you use the object lesson in Sunday School on the subject of repentance?
I tell them this insect is frozen in amber forever, unchanging and that we meet our Maker frozen in our sins unless we repent.
All ants have stingers.
No thanks!
Have enough problems with the insects we have already.
Ah!
Thank you.
.
Note: this topic is from . Thanks fieldmarshaldj for the ping, thanks BenLurkin for the topic.
Way to go, frighten the children.
This is a wonderful opportunity to try and get some DNA from the hell-ant and to clone a whole nest of the little buggers.
What could possibly go wrong? Ref. fire ants and killer bees.
I want a poster of his thing.
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