“Ant From Mars” found in Brazil, according to reports in PNAS online 15 September 2008, and University of Texas news, Austin, New Scientist news and Nature news 16 September 2008. A tiny pale ant that is so strange that evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson joked that it must have come from Mars, has been found in the Amazon rainforest. The ant is 2-3 mm (one tenth inch) long with proportionally large mandibles, and has no eyes. According to New Scientist, “This combination of characteristics has never been recorded before, so the ant has been put in its own new subfamily – the first new subfamily of ants with living species discovered since 1923.” It has been given the scientific name “Martialis heureka” meaning “ant from Mars, eureka” in honour of Wilson’s joke.
The authors of the PNAS report summarised their findings: “On the basis of morphological and phylogenetic evidence we suggest that these specialized subterranean predators are the sole surviving representatives of a highly divergent lineage that arose near the dawn of ant diversification and have persisted in ecologically stable environments like tropical soils over great spans of time.” Christian Rabeling, who found the ant in 2003, commented: “This discovery lends support to the idea that blind subterranean predator ants arose at the dawn of ant evolution.”
One of the reader’s comments on The Times article was “Don’t tell the creationists!”
University of Texas, New Scientist
Editorial Comment: The creationists don’t mind being told about this ant because it is better evidence for creation than it is for evolution.
If this is a unique type ant, unrelated to other ants then it is exactly what you would expect if living things were created as fully formed separate kinds. Ants are supposed to have evolved 120 million years ago. If this ant species really was that old it has reproduced after its kind just as Genesis said living things were created to do. If it is the sole surviving member a diverse group of ants, that is evidence that the world once had more ants and some have died out. This is the opposite of evolution, but fits the Biblical history of the world, which tells us that God cursed the ground as judgement on man’s rebellion against the Creator. As a result the environment has become much harsher and anything that lives in the ground, such as this ant, will be affected. (Ref: arthropods, insects, extinction)
Evidence News 12 December 2008