All ant and termite species these 24-hour interval are societal , and they owe much of their worldwide success to their power to organize into hierarchies . But exactly when this advanced sociality ( or eusociality ) appeared stay unclear . Now , researchers studying 100 - million - class - old amber retrieve from Early Cretaceous Myanmar have notice the oldest evidence of ant and termite societies . Their findings are issue as two study inCurrentBiologythis week .
Eusocial animals are specialized into caste : Queens reproduce while worker and soldiers care for and defend the dependency . pismire are the first major chemical group of ground - live predatory insects to become eusocial , and advanced sociality in termites is thought to have evolved during the Late Jurassic , some 150 million years ago . However , the earliest know soldier and worker termites engagement back to between 17 million and 20 million year , and because of misfortunate preservation , Cretaceous - cured pismire have been rarefied , until now .
Two teams led by research worker at the American Museum of Natural History ( AMNH ) and the University of Kansas ( KU ) have examine exceptionally well preserved pismire and white ant from Burmese amber date stamp back 99 million and 100 million geezerhood , severally . These insect represent the earlier branches of their lineage , and while they face very dissimilar from their modernistic relatives , the squad found compelling structural evidence for sociality in both Cretaceous insect groups .
After analyze aggregations of worker ants in the amber , Phillip BardenandDavid Grimaldiof AMNH discovered signs of group recruitment as well as combat ( image above ) between the workers of unlike ant species , a social feature of ants today . " We know that wingless lonely relatives of ants do n’t fight or represent territories against other species , " Barden say in astatement . " But modern ant warfare all of the fourth dimension . The behavior of these fossil ants , frozen for 100 million year , resolves any ambiguity regarding sociality and diversity in the early ants . "
Grimaldi , Michael Engelof KU , and colleagues observe six termite species keep in the amber , include both workers and soldier . At least two of these specie are young to scientific discipline : Krishnatermes yoddha(pictured below ) andGigantotermes rex . The latter is named for the size of its soldiers , which is the largest known for termite . These determination also revealed that ants and termites ( fierce enemies these days ) live close to each other during the Cretaceous as well .
A reproductive Krishnatermes yoddha white ant . D. Grimaldi and P. Barden / AMNH
