Titanomyrma

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Titanomyrma
Temporal range: 49.5–47 Ma Ypresian, Early Eocene to Lutetian, Middle Eocene
Titanomyrma lubei
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formiciinae
Genus: Titanomyrma
Archibald, Johnson, Mathewes & Greenwood, 2011
Type species
Titanomyrma gigantea
Diversity
3 fossil species
(Species Checklist)

Titanomyrma is a fossil genus of giant ant. The latest species to be discovered, Titanomyrma lubei, was described in 2011, when a 49.5 million year old fossilized winged queen ant was found in Wyoming. This fossil is the first body of a giant ant found in the Western Hemisphere. The presence of Titanomyrma in North America is considered to indicate "the first reported cross-Arctic dispersal by a thermophilic insect group". Another fossil species of this genus, Titanomyrma gigantea, is the largest known fossil or extant species of giant ant in the world.

Identification

Distribution

This taxon is known from Messel, Germany (Lutetian, Middle Eocene) and Green River Formation, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States (Ypresian, Early Eocene).

Castes

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • TITANOMYRMA [†Formiciinae]
    • Titanomyrma Archibald, et al. 2011: 3680. Type-species: †Titanomyrma lubei, by original designation.

References