Image courtesy of Barden, Perrichot, Wang
2020. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.106.
Joel Kontinen
Some 99 million years ago, an extinct type of cockroach relative called Caputoraptor elegans was caught by a hell ant called Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri and the ant started to eat the cockroach.
But then they were trapped in sticky sap that
eventually turned to amber.
Hell ants lived during the Cretaceous period (about
145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago), and are known from amber deposits in
Myanmar, France and Canada spanning 100 million to 78 million years ago, said
evolutionary biologist Phillip Barden, an assistant professor in the Department
of Biological Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
It is amazing, all species trapped in amber tend to be 99 million years ago – the scientist were only successful in trapping a single one.
Source:
Weisberger, Mindy. 2020. Scythelike jaws of Cretaceous 'hell ant'
clutch a baby cockroach in an amber tomb. Live Science 6 August.
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