Dinosaur ant
The dinosaur ant is a yellowish, hairy ant with big eyes. Its body is built in a very old-fashioned way, so scientists call it a living fossil. It is extremely rare and lives only in a few old woodlands in South Australia.
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Fun facts
It likes the cold. It goes out at night when it is chilly, because then fewer enemies are around.
After it was first found in 1931, nobody saw it again for more than 40 years.
In 1977 scientists found it again, 1,300 kilometres away from the first spot.
In the town of Poochera, where it was found again, there are pictures of the ant painted on the streets.
Its nests are tiny for ants, with only 50 to 100 ants in each one.
Most asked questions about Dinosaur ant
?Why is it called the dinosaur ant?
Because its body looks very old-fashioned, like ants from long ago. Scientists call it a living fossil.
?How big is the dinosaur ant?
It is about 1 centimetre long, a medium-sized ant.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Nothomyrmecia macrops
- Named by
- Clark, 1934
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Dawn ant
Where the facts come from
- Nothomyrmecia (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by RW Taylor, CSIRO Entomology, CSIRO. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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