Lucy HicksA new fossil reveals how a mysterious ancient insect captured its meals.The discovery depicts a 99-million-year-old encounter between a “hell ant,” one of the earliest known ants, and its prey, an extinct relative of the cockroach.
Preserved in amber, the ant, less than half the length of a dime, grasps the victim’s neck between two sharp mandibles and a hornlike protrusion on its head (pictured left, illustrated right).The find highlights hell ants’ strange anatomy.
Whereas the mandibles of modern ants (as well as all adult insects) move horizontally, those of hell ants moved vertically, similar to how human jaws open and close.