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Ammon
2 days ago
- Science
- Ammon
'Like finding a diamond': 16-million-year-old fossil of elusive ant
Ammon News - A rare fossil in Dominican amber unveils a miniature, ancient 'dirt ant' once native to the Caribbean. Ants are a common sight wherever soil is found, but one group is so expertly camouflaged that they have earned the exclusive name 'dirt ants' (Basiceros). A newly uncovered fossil is now offering new insight into just how far these elusive ants once roamed. In a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, biologists from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have documented the first fossilized Basiceros dirt ant discovered in the Caribbean. The specimen, an adult worker, was preserved in 16-million-year-old amber from the Dominican Republic. Discovery expands Basiceros history According to researchers, the fossilized adult worker ant belongs to a newly identified species named Basiceros enana, which is significantly smaller than its living counterparts. This discovery provides direct evidence that this secretive ant lineage once lived on the Caribbean islands but later disappeared from the region during the Miocene epoch (23 to 5.3 million years ago). 'Dirt ants are rare finds in the wild. Finding one today is exciting given how well they stay hidden, but captured in amber, it's like finding a diamond,' said Gianpiero Fiorentino, corresponding author of the study and Ph.D. candidate at NJIT's Barden Lab. 'This fossil is singularly distinct from all its modern relatives and reshapes the evolutionary history of Basiceros.' SciTechDaily
The Hill
29-07-2025
- Science
- The Hill
National parks animals are changing their habits in response to humans: Study
The persistent presence of humans and their infrastructure in U.S. national parks has yielded dramatic changes in the behaviors of large animals who live there, a new study has found. Even during the pandemic-era lockdowns that briefly closed parks to humans in 2020, large animals at most sites continued to avoid human-built roadways and facilities, according to the study, published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. This wasn't true in all cases, as animals in more developed areas did switch from avoiding human infrastructure in 2019 to using it more in 2020, per the study. But across all parks and species — particularly in remote areas — the avoidance behavior generally persisted. 'Wildlife all around the world fear people and avoid areas of high human activity,' lead author Kaitlyn Gaynor, a zoologist at the University of British Columbia, said in a statement. 'But it was surprising to see that this holds true even in more remote protected areas,' Gaynor added. To understand these behaviors, the researchers evaluated GPS collar data for 229 animals from 10 species across 14 national parks and protected areas, from 2019 to 2020. Using this range of dates, they explained, allowed for an assessment as to how animals navigated human activity hubs in parks both before and during what they described as a COVID 'Anthropause' — a time with far fewer human visitors. The species of interest included gray wolves, mountain lions, black and grizzly bears, moose, mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Overall, the researchers found that animals tended to avoid infrastructure like roads, trails, parking lots, buildings and campgrounds, although these inclinations varied among populations, species and individuals. For example, animals located in more developed areas were more willing to explore those places without any people around in 2020, according to the study. Managers at Yosemite, for example, told the researchers that even after people came back following pandemic-era closures, the black bears stuck around — causing problems. 'The bears got used to the abundant food in Yosemite Valley and didn't want to give it up,' Gaynor said. But although some populations, like the Yosemite black bears, showed a robust response to park shutdowns, she stressed that 'most did not.' 'Because a lot of headlines in 2020 implied that animals were taking back our national parks and were on the streets everywhere, we expected to see a bigger effect,' Gaynor said. 'But it takes just a few individuals to start changing their behavior to create the perception of a larger impact.' The researchers also hypothesized that due to the relatively short length of the pandemic closures — which on average lasted about 58 days — many animals may have lacked the time necessary to perceive and react to shifts in human activity. They also speculated that risk-averse animals may have already been displaced before the pandemic began — meaning that those with greater exposure to humans may have already been habituated to their presence. Addressing these differences in response, co-author Forest Hayes, a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University, noted 'the complex ways that animals balance risks and benefits associated with humans.' Echoing these sentiments, Gaynor said that 'some species are just more wary of people than others, like bighorn sheep and mountain lions, while others have learned to associate humans with some benefit.' For example, she explained, mule deer and elk at Zion National Park tend to linger around humans in developed areas, possibly as a way of avoiding their predators. Emphasizing the varying responses of animals to human presence, the authors noted the conflicting but coexisting interests of park recreation and conservation activities. These responses, they added, can shape how species compete — prompting changes in ecosystem dynamics and affecting how animals persist alongside people. 'This study provides evidence that conservation is compatible with recreation at low levels but that we do need to keep some areas exclusively for wildlife,' Gaynor said.
15-07-2025
- Science
99-million-year-old 'zombie' fungi found preserved in amber, scientists say
Scientists have discovered two new species of ancient parasitic fungi preserved in amber dating back 99 million years. The fungi were growing out of the bodies of host insects that became trapped in globs of amber during the mid-Cretaceous period, according to a paper published last month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "It's fascinating to see some of the strangeness of the natural world that we see today was also present at the height of the age of the dinosaurs," said Edmund Jarzembowski, a paleoentomologist at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and co-author of the study, in a statement. The species of fungi that were growing out of the body of a young ant in its cocoon stage was named Paleoophiocordyceps gerontoformicae, while another species found bursting from the body of an ancient fly was named Paleoophiocordyceps ironomyiae. Entomopathogenic fungi can infect a wide range of insect groups, including ants, flies, spiders, cicadas and beetles, scientists say. The discovery represents the oldest-known examples of parasitic fungi that infect insects, the researchers said. Throughout their 400 million years of coexistence, fungi have proved to be an important regulator of insect populations. "As the infections are lethal, Ophiocordyceps likely played an important role in controlling the populations of insects by the Mid-Cretaceous, in a similar way to how their living counterparts do today," Jarzembowski said. Little is known about ancient entomopathogenic fungi due to the scarcity of fossils that display typical pathogenic structures on their hosts, according to the paper. The newly discovered species of fungi shared common traits with modern species of Ophiocordyceps, a group of fungi that contains the zombie-ant fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, according to the paper. The groups may have diverged from each other about 130 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous period, the researchers said. The discovery represents the oldest-known examples of parasitic fungi that infect insects, the researchers said. More than 1,500 species of parasitic fungi are currently found in five of the eight major groups of fungi, according to the Natural History Museum in London. O. unilateralis is known for infecting the brain of its hosts and manipulating the insect's behavior -- forcing it to seek more favorable conditions so that the fungi can thrive, the researchers said. Once the ant dies, the fungus grows outside of its body and releases millions of spores to infect more ants. The Zombie-ant fungi was the premise of the post-apocalyptic television series "The Last of Us." "This discovery shows the impact of tiny organisms on social animals long before humans evolved -- with the comforting thought that these tiny organisms are unlikely to jump to us, unlike in sci-fi films!" Jarzembowski said. The specimens are being housed at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University.
Indian Express
01-07-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
‘The Last of Us' cretaceous edition? 99-million-year-old amber traps ‘zombie' fungus from insect brains
A 99-million-year-old piece of amber has preserved a haunting moment of nature: a fly with a parasitic fungus bursting from its head. Another piece trapped an ant similarly infected, offering two of the oldest examples of 'zombie fungi' in the fossil record. These fungi, belonging to the genus Ophiocordyceps, are known for hijacking their hosts' bodies before killing them. The specimens were discovered by researchers at Yunnan University in China, who used microscopes and 3D imaging to study the amber, according to a study published June 11 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, CNN reported. Lead author Yuhui Zhuang described the fossils as rare. 'Amber gives us this opportunity to visualize the ancient ecological relationships preserved in fossils,' he told CNN. The fly and ant were infected with newly identified species: Paleoophiocordyceps ironomyiae and Paleoophiocordyceps gerontoformicae, respectively. These fungi are relatives of modern 'zombie-ant' fungi, made famous by the HBO show 'The Last of Us'. The fossils suggest that complex ecological interactions, including parasitic manipulation, were already present in the Cretaceous period. 'It appears that ants were targeted early for zombification,' said Conrad Labandeira of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the study, the CNN reported. The fungi likely killed their hosts before the insects became trapped in sticky tree resin, which eventually fossilized into amber. This process allowed an extremely rare glimpse into ancient parasitic behavior. Scientists say such parasitic fungi played a critical role in shaping insect populations over millions of years. Phil Barden, an expert on amber fossils at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, called the fossils a window into 'the strangeness of the natural world' even during the time of dinosaurs. The amber was sourced from Myanmar's markets prior to 2017, the study said, before the country's civil conflict escalated. Ethical concerns have been raised in recent years about the trade of Burmese amber due to links to conflict funding.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Zombie' Fungus Caught Bursting From Host Bodies 99 Million Years Ago
Scientists have caught ancient parasitic fungi in the act of bursting from insect hosts, in dramatic scenes frozen in amber. Dating back almost 100 million years, these two specimens are among the oldest evidence of 'zombie' fungus, second only to one early-Cretaceous species discovered back in 2008. Amber forms over millions of years from the sticky resin of trees, and is renowned for the many bizarre, unique, and enlightening moments it has preserved. These two pieces, now in the hands of the London Natural History Museum, include the new fungus species Paleoophiocordyceps gerontoformicae, with its tiny spore stalks sprouting from the body of a pupating ant, and P. ironomyiae, in the form of a singular, phallic fruiting body protruding from a fly's head. Related: These newfound species appear to share traits with living relatives, Ophiocordyceps, that continue to infect insects as a means of spreading their spores. Scientists think the Paleoophiocordyceps species may have separated from Ophiocordyceps around 130 million years ago. "The fossil evidence shows that the infectious fungi were already adapted to two different insect hosts a hundred million years ago, an ant and a true fly," says paleoentomologist Edmund Jarzembowski from the Natural History Museum. "This suggests that the fungus made this jump to other insects as they diversified with the rise of flowering plants and new insect groups, especially moths and butterflies." The research is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 100-Million-Year-Old Rock Reveals 40 Never-Before-Seen Squid Species Sea Slugs Steal Body Parts From Prey to Gain Their Powers Earth Is Pulsing Beneath Africa Where The Crust Is Being Torn Apart
