Fossil of Giant Ant found in Wyoming

The fossil of a Giant Ant, about the same size of a Hummingbird was found in Wyoming. Its age is around 50 million years old.

The finding is from a well-known fossil site in Wyoming called the Green River Formation, but it had been sitting in a drawer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science!
The curator showed it to a Bruce Archibald, a paleoentomologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

It was announced yesterday.



The name of the specie is Titanomyrma lubei, lubei being for the finder of the fossil, Louis Lube.
The big question now is to know which came first; are ants from America or Europe...

The article is interesting in itself, but the link provided all along the text was very informative. I encourage you to follow on them. For example, I learned that the size of the insects, like how big they were in prehistoric times, is directly influenced by the amount of oxygen in the air.

So I guess for those afraid of insects, less oxygen is the best!

My long time question about ants this size is; were they all social insects, then, or did the size of their brain allow them for more free thoughts... Maybe they began to really get together when temperatures fell, and the oxygen levels did too, leaving them more vulnerable?

Here is the link to the article.

Big Ants!!!

reply to post by NowanKenubi


wow could you imagine 2000 of these things they would be unstopable.

reply to post by pcrobotwolf


It would be absolutely horrible!
They must have been a true force of nature to deal with! Our actual small ants can clean a lot of land every day, we can only imagine what these did!

I think a bite on the finger would chop a bit off...

Very cool find. Just think of the size of shoe we would need to stomp them buggers out!

Makes you wonder about cultures that eat bugs. If common ants were that size today, maybe we'd all be sitting around roasted ants (or deep fried) during Thanksgiving here in the states.

Cool thats pretty incredible nice find.

Funny it doesn't really look like an ant to me.

But given the oxygen levels back then these sizes were possible. I wonder if it had the same strength to size ratio as the modern day ants?

reply to post by NowanKenubi


what if that's the larva?

reply to post by StarformNJ


Good question! It would be scary if it did. But I see no reasons why it wouldn't...
Some dinosaurs probably fell prey to these ants and felt their bites full time. And if ants had already the ability to throw acid, as some do today... wow! They were an early form of natural weapon of mass destruction...

reply to post by Lighterside


Crustacean sea food is nothing less than eating big bugs ( big because they are in a low oxygen environment!!! )...

surely tasty with garlic butter! Yummy!

TO PCROBOTWOLF: Don't even think about it!

Originally posted by NowanKenubi
reply to post by Lighterside

 

Crustacean sea food is nothing less than eating big bugs ( big because they are in a low oxygen environment!!! )...

surely tasty with garlic butter! Yummy!

TO PCROBOTWOLF: Don't even think about it!

edit on 4-5-2011 by NowanKenubi because: (no reason given)

When I was in 6th grade my science teacher at the beginning of class one day asked us as we came in if we wanted some chocolate candy and all of us pigged out on them lol. Right before the end of class she told us we had eaten chocolate covered ants! I have to say I wouldn't eat them again but they tasted really good kind of like pepper in chocolate. Later on that teacher let us try caviar and it tasted just like fish eggs, nasty!
www.chefdepot.net...
en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by FarBeyondDriven69


There is the Insectarium of Montreal near my home and they have been serving insects every year. You can buy maple candies filled with insects... I never tried tasting insects, aside from the usual one thru the nose or in the mouth as you go fast on your bicycle... erhh.

It's nice you could try it! I had caviar once and, no thanks. I like my fish already matured and cooked...

reply to post by NowanKenubi


Nice find, interesting article especially this part, yikes:

One living ant species, Dorylus wilverthi, has queens that reach the size of this ancient ant

I have to wonder how many prehistoric picnics these guys ruined

Originally posted by pcrobotwolf
reply to post by NowanKenubi

 

wow could you imagine 2000 of these things they would be unstopable.

Not if you were giants as well. I wonder if a lab was built and enriched in oxygen then allowed some creatures to grow would they grow to be giants as well.. cool find

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


You know, that is such a good idea! Any entomologists here willing to try this? Can you imagine a spider farm to collect their silk?
This could be the basis for a good scientifically sound sci-fi, or horror story!

Seriously, could this be a low cost production business to grow insects for consumption, as gross as the idea is...?