Army Ants Defy Evolution

Cornell News ^ | 5/5/03 | Sean Brady

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

This is an interesting 'find'.

FRegards, MM

[Asclepius]

... the entomologist showed the ants evolved only once ...

On about the fifth or the sixth day. And Hashem said something like, it is good, only really, really creepy.

[weegee]

"the supercontinent Gondwana"

Is this what we're calling it now?

[lelio]

I'm not seeing how this "defies" evolution -- they look like they're doing pretty good by themselves. You're only going to evolve if there's a) something that you're doing wrong, b) there's a better way to do it, or c) some external event happens to change you or your surroundings.

[PatrickHenry]

The original title of the article is this
Army ants, as voracious as ever, have defied evolution for 100 million years, Cornell entomologist finds.

The revised title for the posted article is highly misleading. Many species remain relatively unchanged for long periods of time. That is not in any way a contradiction of the theory of evolution. This is an interesting article, if one cares about army ants, but it's presented in the wrong light.

[B-Chan]

Yeah, but the weird thing is that they just sort of appeared. Bam -- one day, no army ants. The next, there they are. No primitive forms, no transitional quasi-ant fossils, just whammo, ants, almost as if they were suddenly created from out of nothing by some vast, creative intellect.

In other words, they're pretty much like life itself.

I'm glad army ants can't live here. Those things are scary. Anyone who has ever faced off against solenopsis invicta (the imported fire ant) knows that the family Formiciae is nothing to fool around with. A fire ant colony can kill you -- or make you wish you were dead.

Lucky for use they can't use tools or we'd all be out of a job.

[LauraJean]

Charlton Heston was in a movie where he fought the Army Ants and he won.

[sam_paine]

The translation I learned here in Texas for the vanished supercontinent of Gondwana was "Goneyonder."

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

Interested, eh? Well then you are in luck! Now on video, and in stock, Creatures That Defy Evolution.

[sam_paine]

A fire ant colony can kill you -- or make you wish you were dead.

Bah. A pint of gasoline makes them immediately docile, with or without the match.

[Salgak]

Which flick was that ? I can recall The Omega Man, where he beat diseased Mutants, and of course, the "damned dirty apes" of Planet of the Apes. . .

[Leo Carpathian]

Is ant Jemina related? How did she evolve?

[FreedomCalls]

Evolution in action.

[weegee]

That would be The Naked Jungle by George Pal:

[Texas_Jarhead]

"supercontinent Gondwana"

hey, what happened to the name? I thought is was called something else. What was it? I can't recall.

[dubyagee]

Touchy, touchy...Defying evolution or defying it for 100 million years. Just semantics, right?

[Texas_Jarhead]

I would imiagine that the old name wasn't afro-centric enough for some - I'm still trying to remember what the old name was. Any idea? Maybe started with a P or B... It's killin me....

[Centurion2000]

"the supercontinent Gondwana"

Is this what we're calling it now?

Pangea, the ultimate supercontinent, broke up into to two land masses first. Laurasia, the northern continent, was comprised of Europe, Asia and North American. Gondawanaland (old style term apparently replaced) was the southern mass with India, Africa, South American and Antarctica crammed into on major land mass.

Late Jurassic Period approx 152 MYa

[tet68]

Gondwana, it's been called that for eons.

[Texas_Jarhead]

Pangea!!!