Fungus Farms and Jumping Genes: Two Studies Place the Rise of Ants Right After the Dinosaur Extinction
Nature World News | 03.11.2026 17:57
The asteroid that ended the age of dinosaurs about 66 million years ago now shows up twice in the story of how ants came to dominate the planet. A genome study in Science Advances finds bursts of "jumping gene" activity in major ant lineages shortly after the impact, matching earlier Smithsonian research that dated the start of ant fungus farming to the same moment.
