More than 47 million years ago, giant carnivorous ants swarmed the prehistoric forest floors of North America looking for prey.
'Giant' is no exaggeration either. Some ancient colonies that lived in what is now the state of Wyoming were ruled by queens the size of hummingbirds.
Those aren't even the biggest ants to ever stride across Earth's surface. The largest known ant queen to have ever lived was a relative found in fossil form over in Germany. She had the body mass of a wren, was more than 5 centimeters long, and had wings that extended 16 centimeters.
While animals that can modify their own temperatures withstand colder climates by maximizing their mass and minimizing their skin, animals that need to absorb heat from their environmentThe fossil of an extinct giant ant from Wyoming against a hummingbird for size. So how did ancient giant ants cross the cold Bering land bridge that once connected Russia to Alaska to get from Europe to Wyoming?that this temperate land bridge once included a climate-controlled 'gate'. During brief periods of global warming, that gate may have swung open to allow cold-blooded organisms, like ants, to comfortably pass from one continent to another.A fossil of a giant ant queen unearthed in Germany, the largest ant ever found.
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