Newly Discovered Creepy Ant From Mars?

Pale ant with no eyes and mouthparts like forceps comes from the oldest living ant lineage yet found.

“It’s an incredibly bizarre-looking ant morphologically, which for ant biologists is really exciting,” said Corrie Moreau, after seeing a picture. As an ant specialist at the Field Museum in Chicago, she says she can think of a few other species with each of the new ant’s peculiar features. But to find those rare traits combined in one species is unique, she says.

DNA analysis suggests that the odd ant’s lineage evolved earlier than any other living ant’s, Rabeling says.

"Ant 'From Mars'" (ScienceNews)

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