Ted Schultz (IMAGE)
Caption
Entomologist Ted Schultz, the curator of ants at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the lead author of the new paper, on an ant-collecting expedition to the Acarai Mountains of southern Guyana in October 2006.
Schultz has spent 35 years studying the evolutionary relationship between ants and fungi. He has conducted more than 30 expeditions to locales in Central and South America to observe this interaction in the wild and has reared colonies of leafcutter and other fungus-farming ants in his lab at the museum. Over the years, Schultz and colleagues have collected thousands of genetic samples of ants and fungi from throughout the tropics.
In a paper published today, Oct. 3, in the journal Science, scientists at the museum analyzed genetic data from hundreds of species of fungi and ants to craft detailed evolutionary trees. According to the new study, colonies of ants began farming fungi when an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago. This impact caused a global mass extinction but also created ideal conditions for fungi to thrive. Innovative ants began cultivating the fungi, creating an evolutionary partnership that became even more tightly intertwined 27 million years ago and continues to this day.
Credit
Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo
Usage Restrictions
News media use of the photos in relation to the study is only permitted with attribution.
License
Original content