Skip to main content

Giant Ants in Ancient North America

Big insects once roamed the US. They were very big. Ants were the size of small birds 50 million years ago. They are thought to have crossed the arctic land bridge that once existed between Europe and the US. The Green River site in Wyoming has given up many new finds in the past.

Bruce Archibald of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia noted that the fossil was similar to one found in Germany. Only the queen of the Dorylus wilverthi species of ant living today reaches this size. Fittingly, the new ant has been named Titanomyrma lubei. Louis Lube found the specimen. While this ant is big for North America, big ants probably lived in other parts of the world because large fossils of other creatures have been found there.

Large ants only live a tropical climate in the present so North America was tropical millions of years ago. It is a mystery how they crossed the temperate Arctic region then. For brief periods this area became quite warm, up to 8 degrees Celsius, though not tropical. Bursts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from sediment was the culprit. With two sources for ancient giant ants now known it may be possible to identify where they originated.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Science
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

New Species Found in Australia

An endangered animal, Antechinus, has two new members. Well, they have been there all along. A team from Queensland University of Technology discovered the Tasman Peninsula Dusky Antechinus (Antechinus vandycki) in south east Tasmania, and nominated the Mainland Dusky Antechinus   (Antechinus mimetes) . The latter was known to be in New South Wales and Victoria but it is now a species in its own right. The Tasman Antechinus is about 13 cm long with a short tail weighing roughly 90g. It is located in Port Arther, Tasmania. Under threat from clearing of trees it resides in state forest in fragmented groups.  Survival is precarious in the isolated stands. While uncovering new species is rare in developed countries, new ones are being found in Australia all the time. This is due to the low population density of people in inland Australia. Unfortunately, new species when found are usually in small numbers and under threat. Antechinus are not helping themselves...
Read more

Albert Einstein's Genius Was Due to His Unusual Brain

Albert Einstein wasn't only a genius her was a very odd human being. His brain shows peculiar differences from the norm; it had many more folds than the average person. This gave the brain a greater surface area. It is like using a larger computer to do calculations. Upon his father's death in 1955, Thomas Einstein gave the pathologist permission to preserve the brain of Albert Einstein. It was photographed then dissected into 2,000 ultra-thin slices. The slices and slides of them were later distributed to researchers. The brain had more neurons and glia cells, well outside of the normal range; pariental lobes were unusual in the pattern of ridges and grooves. Einstein only had a brain of average size. The area controlling the tongue and face was larger, as was the region that involves attention and planning. Overall, Einstein's brain was complex. Many people think in words. He said his thinking was like a physical activity. If selection based on "healthy...
Read more

TV Dog

"Never anything on worth watching." Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vista Computer Solutions Blog        Australian Blog ★                          ALL BLOG ARTICLES · ──► ( BLOG HOME PAGE) Share Article
Read more