Humans are believed to have started farming about 10,000 years ago, and agriculture has since then helped ensure that mankind's growing populations get enough supply of food.
Findings of a new study, however, have shown that humans are not the first to figure out farming. The seemingly lowly insects appear to have started the practice millions of years before humans did.
In a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers reported the discovery of the oldest fossil evidence of agriculture, which was made by insects and not humans.
Eric Roberts from James Cook University and colleagues found the oldest known example of "fungus gardens" in a fossil termite nest in East Africa, which is estimated to be about 25 million years old.
Using DNA from modern-day termites, researchers earlier estimated that fungus farming among these insects started 25 to 30 million years ago, and the fossil evidence confirmed this date.
"Using these well-dated fossil fungus gardens, we have recalibrated molecular divergence estimates for the origins of termite agriculture to around 31 Ma, lending support to hypotheses suggesting an African Paleogene origin for termite-fungus symbiosis; perhaps coinciding with rift initiation and changes in the African landscape," researchers wrote in their study published on June 22.
Some species of termites cultivate fungi in gardens, which helps convert plant material into a more easily digestible food.
The termites chew indigestible plant materials and form it into tiny pellets that they seed with fungus spores. The insects then harvest and eat the mushrooms once these are ready. The fungus also breaks down the plant material's enzyme, which allows the termites to consume what was previously inedible.
Researchers said that such practice allowed the insects to survive and even flourish amid rapidly changing environment. As the ecosystem turned from lush rainforest to dry grassland, the fungus gave the termites the ability to utilize pulpy plant materials more efficiently than they could have on their own.
By becoming farmers, termites became more equipped to succeed in a variety of ecosystems.
Transitioning to fungus agriculture has increased the range of potential habitats for fungus-growing termites and the domesticated fungi, a process comparable to what happened to humans and their domesticated crops and livestock about 24,990,000 years later.
The researchers said that the findings show something about the intelligence of social insects whose ability to tap on agriculture gave them evolutionary advantage and source of higher quality food.
