Jumping Gene Bursts After the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Line Up with the Rise of Ants, 163 Genomes Show
Nature World News | 29.10.2026 17:37
A comparison of 163 ant genomes has found that the ant lineages carrying the most "jumping genes" are also the ones with the most species alive today. The study also traced independent bursts of jumping-gene activity in the ancestors of the biggest ant groups to the early Paleogene, shortly after the asteroid impact that ended the age of dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. The research, led by Lukas Schrader of the University of Münster in Germany, was published in Science Advances.
