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Bone-collecting by harvesting ants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Pat Shipman and
Alan Walker
Pat Shipman
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Alan Walker
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Johns Hopkins Medical School, 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
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Abstract

Bone-collecting behavior in the harvester ant, Messor barbarus, has been observed for the first time. Excavation to the depth of the packed substrate of a single ant hill yielded 1167 modern bones derived from nine or more species of small vertebrates. Since harvester ants of various species are well-known from the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia, ants may have served as important agents of concentration for micromammal assemblages in the fossil record. Analysis of the faunal and skeletal representation of the ant hill assemblages reveals characteristic patterns that might be used to distinguish such assemblages from those collected by avian or mammalian predators.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , Fall 1980, pp. 496 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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