Scientists recently discovered the remains of a 52-million-year old beetle trapped in a piece of amber in India. This beetle spent its life living near ants, inserting itself into their society, where it used their resources and ate their eggs.
Although the discovery of the beetle is fascinating enough, the find also tells us much about ants that lived millions of years ago.
"Although ants are an integral part of most terrestrial ecosystems today, at the time that this beetle was walking the Earth, ants were just beginning to take off, and these beetles were right there inside the ant colonies, deceiving them and exploiting them," says lead author Joseph Parker. "This tells us something not just about the beetles, but also about the ants -- their nests were big enough and resource-rich enough to be worthy of exploitation by these super-specialized insects."
