{"id":65940,"date":"2025-10-13T17:12:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T21:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=65940"},"modified":"2025-10-13T17:12:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T21:12:27","slug":"animal-news-about-a-dead-hell-ant-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=65940","title":{"rendered":"Animal news. About a dead hell ant. (What?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seems there is such a thing as a hell ant. Or maybe it was<\/em> such a thing. Although the info I’m about to pass on, from Harper’s Findings, has nothing much to do with the reality of hell ants, I’m going to search Perplexity for verification of this hell ant critter. (Pause for my search.) And here’s what Perplexity tells me:<\/p>\n

Yes, there is such a creature known as a hell ant, but it is extinct and only known from fossils.<\/em><\/p>\n

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What is (or was) a hell ant? Hell ants (subfamily Haidomyrmecinae) are an extinct group of ants that lived during the Cretaceous period, approximately 145\u201366 million years ago. They are famous for their unique, upward-curving, scythe-like jaws and horn-like projections on their heads, features not seen in any living ant species.<\/em><\/p>\n

Whew. I for one am delighted to hear they haven’t existed for many millions of years. But I’m not writing this to express my great relief. Here’s the Finding from Harper’s:<\/p>\n

A hell ant preserved in Brazilian limestone was declared the oldest ant to have been discovered.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That brings up a number of questions but I’m not going to ask them. Nor will I paste a picture of a hell ant here. (You can thank me privately or publicly.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seems there is such a thing as a hell ant. Or maybe it was such a thing. Although the info I’m about to pass on, from Harper’s Findings, has nothing much to do with the reality of hell ants, I’m … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4775,1175],"tags":[2197,11530,10934],"class_list":["post-65940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-news","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-harpers","tag-hell-ants","tag-perplexity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t