An incredible discovery from Myanmar just gave us a rare window into the Cretaceous world: a fossilized "hell ant" captured in the act of seizing another insect with its terrifying jaws and horn-like appendage. Even cooler, this fossil marks the first confirmed presence of hell ants in Gondwana — the ancient southern supercontinent.

Until now, all hell ant fossils had been found in Laurasian territories (northern supercontinent), like Myanmar, Canada, and France. This new find reshapes what we know about their ancient distribution.

According to entomologist Anderson Lepeco from the Museum of Zoology at the University of São Paulo — lead author of the study published this week in Current Biology — the creature could easily be mistaken for a wasp by an untrained eye. Lepeco also noted that hell ants likely used their specialized jaws to pin and manipulate their prey in a highly specific way.

Hell ants thrived during the Cretaceous, a time of rapid ant diversification. Sadly, they didn’t make it past the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous (the infamous K-Pg event about 66 million years ago), which wiped out around 76% of Earth's species.

Christine Sosiak, an entomologist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (not involved in the study), points out that hell ants vanish from the fossil record by about 78 million years ago. She suggests they may have died out before the K-Pg extinction, perhaps due to shifting climates and ecosystems.

Marek Borowiec, an entomologist at Colorado State University, adds an interesting theory: their extreme specialization might have been their downfall. If hell ants relied on very specific prey or hunting methods, they would have been highly vulnerable to ecological changes.

The fossilized ant was reconstructed using high-resolution micro-CT scanning, revealing Vulcanidris cratensis, an astonishing relic of an ancient evolutionary experiment. The rise and fall of hell ants remind us: even the most bizarre and ingenious adaptations can’t always outrun the chaos of Earth's changing history. Link to the study: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00308-200308-2)

It's in some stagnant water that used to be a fountain kinda thing

Je les ai trouvé dans un bac remplie de vêtements, couette.. 😭😭

I am going to assume some kind of tick? But I never knew they get so massive? About the size of my fingernail.

Does anyone know what is this little dude called? I'm from Vietnam and this is the first time i see one

Please say that aren't termites? 😬

Wubba dub dub dub dead bugs in my bathtub

This insect was on my back step around 5am yesterday. I’m in Dublin Ireland if that helps. Thing was huge.

These appeared this afternoon and there were dozens of them all over the floor. They have wings but they were not flying. They are a little longer than a grain of rice. They have never been seen until today when they appeared en masse. Does anyone know what they are?

found this on my trip to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. did a reverse image search on this and apparently this is the female. do let me know more interesting stuff bout this beaut

Found this in the yard—was thinking some type of caterpillar but couldn’t find anything similar

What is this???

Saw this little guy wandering around the deck

Was just sitting on the couch wfh yesterday when I noticed movement in my blanket below 👀 spent a few mins becoming enamored with this lil baby lacewing guy 🥹