The fossil extinct giant ant Titanomyrma from Wyoming that was found over a decade back by SFU paleontologist Bruce Archibald and collaborators at the Denver Museum. The fossil queen ant is beside a hummingbird, showing the huge size of this titanic insect. Credit: Bruce Archibald
Simon Fraser University researchers say their research study on the current fossil discover near Princeton, B.C. is raising concerns about how the dispersal of plants and animals occurred throughout the Northern Hemisphere some 50 million years earlier, including whether quick periods of worldwide warming were at play.
The fossil was found by Princeton resident Beverley Burlingame and provided to the scientists through the towns museum. Scientists say it is the first Canadian specimen of the extinct ant Titanomyrma, whose biggest types was remarkably gigantic, with the body mass of a wren and a wingspan of half a foot.
SFU paleontologists Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes, together with Arvid Aase of Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming, have published their research on the fossil in the current edition of the clinical journal The Canadian Entomologist.
The giant fossil queen ant Titanomyrma, recently discovered in the Allenby Formation near Princeton, British Columbia, the first of its kind in Canada. Credit: Bruce Archibald
A years previously, Archibald and collaborators discovered an enormous Titanomyrma fossil from Wyoming in a museum drawer in Denver. “This ant and the brand-new fossil from British Columbia are close in age to other Titanomyrma fossils that have actually been long understood in Germany and England,” states Archibald. “This raises the questions of how these ancient bugs took a trip in between continents to appear on both sides of the Atlantic at nearly the same time.”
Europe and North America were linked by land across the Arctic then, as the North Atlantic had actually not yet opened enough by continental drift to completely separate them. But was the ancient far-northern environment suitable for their passage?
The researchers discovered that the ancient climates were hot where these ants lived in Wyoming and Europe. They further found that modern ants with the greatest queens likewise occupy hot climates, leading them to associate plus size in queen ants with heats. This develops a problem, however, as although the ancient Arctic had a milder climate than today, it still would not have actually been hot enough to allow Titanomyrma to pass.
New findings build on earlier research
The researchers suggested in 2011 that this may be discussed by geologically short intervals of worldwide warming around the time of Titanomyrma called “hyperthermals” creating short-term intervals of friendly conditions for them to cross.
They then anticipated that Titanomyrma would not be found in the ancient temperate Canadian uplands, as it would have been cooler than Titanomyrma appears to have required. Now one has been discovered there.
The story ends up being more interesting and complicated, as the brand-new Canadian fossil was misshaped by geological pressure throughout fossilization, so its true life size cant be established. It may have been gigantic like a few of the biggest Titanomyrma queens, but it might equally be rebuilded as smaller.
” If it was a smaller sized species, was it adjusted to this area of cooler climate by reduction in size and gigantic species were excluded as we forecasted back in 2011?” says Archibald. “Or were they substantial, and our idea of the climatic tolerance of enormous ants, and so how they crossed the Arctic, was incorrect?”
Archibald says the research is assisting researchers better comprehend how B.C.s neighborhood of plants and animals were forming when climate was much different. “Understanding how life distributed among the northern continents in a very different environment 50 million years back in part describes patterns of animal and plant circulation that we see today,” states Archibald.
” Titanomyrma may likewise help us much better understand how international warming could impact how the circulation of life might alter. To prepare for the future, it helps to understand the past.”.
He includes: “Well require to find more fossils. Do our ideas of Titanomyrmas ecology, and so of this ancient dispersal of life, need revision? In the meantime, it stays a secret.”.
Referral: “Eocene giant ants, Arctic intercontinental dispersal, and hyperthermals reviewed: discovery of fossil Titanomyrma (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formiciinae) in the cool uplands of British Columbia, Canada” by S. Bruce Archibald, Rolf W. Mathewes and Arvid Aase, 6 February 2023, The Canadian Entomologist.DOI: 10.4039/ tce.2022.49.
The fossil extinct huge ant Titanomyrma from Wyoming that was discovered over a decade earlier by SFU paleontologist Bruce Archibald and collaborators at the Denver Museum. The fossil queen ant is next to a hummingbird, revealing the big size of this titanic bug. A decade earlier, Archibald and collaborators found an enormous Titanomyrma fossil from Wyoming in a museum drawer in Denver. “This ant and the new fossil from British Columbia are close in age to other Titanomyrma fossils that have actually been long known in Germany and England,” says Archibald. He adds: “Well need to find more fossils.
