World’s oldest ant fossil found in Brazil, dating back 113 million years (news.mongabay.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net to c/biodiversity@mander.xyz

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A “remarkably well-preserved” fossil discovered in Brazil, dating back 113 million years, is now the oldest ant to have ever been found by scientists, a new study has revealed. The ancient fossil was found preserved in a limestone and “represents the earliest undisputed ant known to science,” the authors write in the study.

archived (Wayback Machine):

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Dolphinfreetuna@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Too bad the article doesn't say how big this is

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

In the article linked as "statement", there's an image with a scale:

[-] Dolphinfreetuna@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Thank you! The Mongabay article removed the scale in the pictures.

this post was submitted on 16 May 2025

75 points (100.0% liked)

Biodiversity

1876 readers

38 users here now

Welcome to c/Biodiversity @ Mander.xyz!

A community about the variety of life on Earth at all levels; including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi.

Notice Board

This is a work in progress, please don't mind the mess.

2023-06-16: We invite our users to contribute resources for the sidebar.

2023-06-15: Looking for mods!

About

Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

Rules