Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren voc Obaum and this is another classic episode
Speaker 1: from our previous host, Christian Sagar. This one talks about
Speaker 1: perhaps the smallest of the completely wild prehistoric creatures, the
Speaker 1: hell ant. Hey brain Stuff is Christian Sagar. Here, fire ants,
Speaker 1: carpenter ants, bull ants. There are a lot of ant
Speaker 1: species that can cause a great deal of harm. The
Speaker 1: worst one alive today, according to the Guinness World Records,
Speaker 1: is the bulldog aunt. It has killed at least three humans,
Speaker 1: some within fifteen minutes. But perhaps the worst aunt ever
Speaker 1: was the hell aunt, a prehistoric insect that was recently
Speaker 1: discovered incased in a chunk of Myanmar amber dating to
Speaker 1: the Late Cretaceous period. Evolutionary biologist Philip Barden of the
Speaker 1: New Jersey Institute of Technology and his team wrote about
Speaker 1: the hell aunt discovery in the journal Systemic Entomology. The
Speaker 1: hell aunt got its name from its anatomy and behavior.
Speaker 1: Instead of having a typical mouth, the hell aunt had
Speaker 1: blades that stuck upward, think like tusks, plus a horn
Speaker 1: that was reinforced with metal. Scientists don't know for sure
Speaker 1: how the hell aunt used its unusual appendages, but they
Speaker 1: have some theories. First, it seems clear that the ant's
Speaker 1: tusks and horn were mainly used for catching prey, So
Speaker 1: here's one possible m O. When it came to finding dinner.
Speaker 1: When a tasty insect passed nearby, the hell ance jaw
Speaker 1: tusks would flip the insect up and onto its horn,
Speaker 1: impaling it. Spearing prey does take a toll, though, which
Speaker 1: is probably why the hell ants horn was clad with metal.
Speaker 1: And if that isn't gruesome enough, researchers say this prehistoric
Speaker 1: insect might have had some vampire like tendencies to When
Speaker 1: the ants snagged its prey, its tusk like jaws clothes
Speaker 1: to form a gutter, which may have been a means
Speaker 1: of funneling the insects blood right down into the ant's gullet.
Speaker 1: The hell ants, scientifically known as Lingua mirmes vlady, was
Speaker 1: discovered in a chunk of amber that was nine million
Speaker 1: years old. Although it's unusual appendages were likely used to
Speaker 1: catch its food, researchers say they may have occasionally been
Speaker 1: used defensively. This is not the only insects sporting metal, either.
Speaker 1: Some present day termite species actually have zinc and manganese
Speaker 1: in their mandibles. However, there are no modern ants similarly equipped.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Melanie Redzeeki McManus and produced
Speaker 1: by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Clang. For more in this
Speaker 1: monts of other metal topics, visit how Stuff Works dot M.
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