News Animals

Neandertal of ant farmers grows modern food

Discovery provides new look at the co-evolution of symbiotic organisms

Farming ants with fungus

SURPRISING PARTNERS Ants with ancient farming techniques somehow manage to grow and feed on a surprisingly modern and picky fungus (white mass in the background).

Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

A living relict of an ancient species of farmer ants has startled biologists by cultivating a fancy, modern food crop that didn’t arise until more than 30 million years after the ants themselves.