In the early 1990's a gold mine was discovered at a construction site in New Jersey. Cretaceous amber over 90-100 million years old yielded numerous plant and animal species, some brand new to researchers. This ant is one of the oldest ever found. This little guy is named Sphecomyrma freyi and belongs to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. You don't have to go to the ends of the earth to find arboreal gold- we have our own deposits right here!
Photo courtesy of Dr. David Grimaldi, American Museum of Natural History
Click here to return to thumbnails.