Giant fossil ants linked to global warming
Two SFU biologists are among four scientists a fossilized giant ant that is comparable in size to a humming bird.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Four paleontologists, including two at Simon Fraser University, have discovered the fossil of a gigantic ant whose globetrotting sheds light on how global warming events affected the distribution of life some 50 million years ago.
The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a British scientific journal, has published online today (May 4) their study Intercontinental dispersal of giant thermophilic ants across the Arctic during early Eocene hyperthermals.
The authors are Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes from SFU (British Columbia, Canada), David Greenwood from Brandon University (Manitoba, Canada) and Kirk Johnson from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in (Colorado, USA).
They describe a new fossil species of giant ant, which they’ve named Titanomyrma lubei. This winged queen ant lived in the Eocene Epoch about 50 million years old. It had a body just over five centimetres long — comparable to a hummingbird — a size only rivaled today by the monstrously large queens of an ant species in tropical Africa.
Archibald found the ant in a drawer when visiting Johnson at the Denver Museum. He says: “What is surprising is that this ant scurried about an ancient forest in what is now Wyoming when the climate there was hot like the modern tropics. In fact, all of the closely related fossil giant ants have been found in Europe and North America at sites that had hot climates.”
The researchers also looked at the habitats of the largest modern ants, and found that almost all live in the tropics, indicating that there might be something about being big that requires ants to live in hot temperatures.
During the Eocene Epoch, many plants and animal species migrated between Europe and North America via continuous land across the Arctic, bridging the two continents. But the mystery is how did these ancient giant ants pass through a temperate Arctic climate — too cool for them?
The researchers suspect that the key is in the brief, but intense episodes of global warming that happened around this time. They appear to have created periodic opportunities for hot climate life to pass between continents through the Arctic. Archibald calls them brief openings of a physiological gate to cross the physical land bridge.
He notes that these findings will help scientists gain a better grasp of the impacts of global warming on life. He says: “As the Earth’s climate changes, we are seeing tropical pest species extend their ranges into mid-latitudes and dragonflies appear in the Arctic. Understanding the details of how life forms adapted to global warming in the past will be of increasing importance in the future.”
More information: http://rspb.royals … lishing.org/
Provided by Simon Fraser University
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
Research team claims to have found evidence Lake Cheko is impact crater for Tunguska Event,
18 comments
-
What would stain as translucent on light-coloured fabric?
13 hours ago
-
How do I identify different bacteria on culture plates?
23 hours ago
-
Why Do Dogs do Strange things...
May 25, 2012
-
What does exophillic and endophillic mean in terms of mosquito and their control?
May 24, 2012
-
Semen stains glows under black lights (uv light)?
May 23, 2012
-
Question on Human Chromosome 2
May 23, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Biology
More news stories
Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history
(AP) -- Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history. Not that the avowed atheist has any doubts himself.
12 hours ago |
3.5 / 5 (11) |
30
Thousands of shellfish found dead in Peru
Thousands of crustaceans were found dead off the coast of Lima following the mystery mass death of dolphins and pelicans, the Peruvian Navy said Friday.
22 hours ago |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
7
More plant species responding to global warming than previously thought
(Phys.org) -- Far more wild plant species may be responding to global warming than previous large-scale estimates have suggested.
May 22, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
18
|
For monogamous sparrows, it doesn't pay to stray (but they do it anyway)
It's quite common for a female song sparrow to stray from her breeding partner and mate with the male next door, but a new study shows that sleeping around can be costly.
May 22, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
7
|
Study uncovers secret to speedy burrowing by razor clams
(Phys.org) -- If you look at a razor burrowing clam sitting in a bucket, you’d never guess that it could burrow itself down into the soil, much less do it with any speed. Razor clams look like fat straws, ...
May 25, 2012 |
1 / 5 (1) |
3
|
Nvidia trumpets Tegra 3 phone design wins for 2012
(Phys.org) -- Nvidia’s competitive war paint has a name, Tegra 3. On the heels of Nvidia announcements about lowering costs of its Tegra 3 processors and Nvidia-enabled tablets running Android Ice Cream ...
Browser wars flare in mobile space
The browser wars are heating up again, but this time the fight is for dominance of the mobile Internet.
Dell tablet leak: 10.1-inch display, two-battery choice
(Phys.org) -- Headline after headline talks about vendors’ tablets in the wings as likely number-one contenders for the iPad. Such claims have justifiably been taken with a grain of salt, considering ...
SpotterRF debuts Radar Backpack Kit (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) -- SpotterRF has announced a special radar backpack kit designed to enhance situational awareness for soldiers on the ground. The company says its special radar is designed for warfighters as part ...
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update)
SpaceX's Dragon cargo vessel smells like a new car, said astronauts at the International Space Station after opening the hatches Saturday following the spacecraft's landmark mission to the orbiting lab.
Australia hails surprise super-telescope decision
Australia has hailed a surprise decision giving it a role in a radio telescope project aimed at revolutionising astronomy, vowing to draw on its decades of experience in space science.
May 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (7)
May 04, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
what the heck? Are the two SFU biologists themselves giant ants? and fossilized on top of that. That would be a first.
May 04, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
May 04, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
May 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
The humanity
May 04, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
May 04, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
May 04, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
The article explicitly states that it's a queen ant.
Agree about the hummingbird. It seems convenient that they would have a dead hummingbird just sitting around that is the perfect size for comparison. It would have been far less creepy if they just got someone to make a fist for the picture.
And...I hate ants. I feel religious right now, because praise God those ants are all dead. WTF would you do if you accidently stepped on their nest and a couple dozen of these suckers started swarming you.
May 04, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
But seriously, they just happened to have a fresh killed hummingbird in their pocket? How about a coin? A pen? A business card? A cell phone? A USB plug? Seriously.
(no animals were harmed in posting this comment.)
May 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
As for the dead hummingbird, the fossil was in a collection at a museum. It stands to reason that they'd also have preserved specimens on hand for study and display. I'm quite sure they didn't run outside and execute a hummer just for the photo shoot. Though I agree that a ruler would have been more useful for those of us who can wrap our heads around that sort of thing, I would imagine that most people would find the numbers dry and boring. So it makes sense that whoever took the photo tried to engage the widest possible audience by setting up the shot in this way. An ant as big as a bird, how cool is that!? Kids can understand that kind of a comparison.
May 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
It's an african swallow.
May 04, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
You'd expect a larger insect to have a larger brain.
Imagine ants that are individually as smart as birds, but work collectively.
Thankfully, the little...er...big...buggers died out.
May 04, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
May 04, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Case in point: Tor Johnson in "Plan 9 from Outer Space"!
May 04, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
I've seen velvet ants (actually ground dwelling wasps) that are about two centimeters long (sorry, I don't have a handy conversion chart for hummingbird units). They're really cool. When you annoy them (aka, poke 'em with a stick), they make really cute raspy-buzzing sounds. It's said their sting can take down a cow!
And, I've seen large stag beetles take down large moths that are about as big as a hummingbird (one hummingbird unit). Gives me the willies, just thinking about it.
Let's just be glad this ant is a fossil.
May 05, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
May 05, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
That made me laugh :)