Return of the supersoldier ants
Ancient traits hidden in plain sight!
Researchers discovered that the ability to produce supersoldier ants is not limited to the few species where they naturally occur. Instead, this hidden developmental program appears to be shared across the entire Pheidole lineage, remaining dormant for an estimated 35 to 60 million years.
The findings suggest that the earliest ancestors of Pheidole ants possessed the ability to produce supersoldiers, and although most species no longer express this trait, they never completely lost the underlying developmental potential. Under the right conditions, that dormant program can be reactivated, revealing a remarkable link between present-day ants and their evolutionary past.
This work challenges the traditional view that evolutionary "throwbacks" are simply biological curiosities. Instead, it suggests that dormant ancestral traits may provide the raw material for evolutionary innovation, allowing old developmental pathways to be reused in new ways over time.
“Ants are like humans in a way. We take care of the less fortunate in our society. As long as these anomalies can be fed, they’ll be taken care of. If we were studying a solitary organism, we’d miss this completely.”
About the Abouheif Lab
The Abouheif Lab combines ecology, evolution, and developmental biology to explore how living systems become more complex — and what happens when those systems break down. By studying these connections in nature, the lab aims to develop innovative ideas that can help address challenges ranging from cancer to climate change.
