Biologists discover the first fossil species of mountain ants in Baltic amber

[Still Waters]

St Petersburg University scientists found an ant of the genus Manica in a piece of amber in collection of the Kaliningrad Amber Museum. Such ants had previously been found only in the mountains of Europe, the Caucasus, North America, and Japan. The scientists report that the age of the finding is about 33.9–37.8 million years. This is the most ancient and first known fossil species of this genus.

Manica is a genus of ants about 5–6 millimeters long, currently found exclusively in mountainous regions. Prior to this study, only six recent species of the genus Manica were known.

https://phys.org/news/2023-02-biologists-fossil-species-mountain-ants.html

Their research findings were published in Insects.

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/14/1/21