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Trapped in the act 38 million years ago, two termites have revealed how fossilized amber can reveal insights into ancient mating behavior.
Scientists were puzzled when they saw an extinct pair of the species Electrotermes affinis were preserved side to side, instead of front to back, as occurs in modern-day termites. Called “tandem running,” this occurs when one animal follows right behind the other, like train cars, with the second insect holding onto the abdomen of the first to keep them from separating.
By simulating how the insects got stuck in amber, entomologists discovered the duo were indeed mating in the same way as modern termites, but their run-in with tree resin is what caused the odd side-by-side configuration. (Learn how amber creates exquisite fossils.)
That means termites alive today have mating behaviors very much like their ancestors millions of years ago, according to the study, published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
As a window into prehistoric courtship, “the existence of this amber fossil itself was shocking,” says study leader Nobuaki Mizumoto, an assistant professor in entomology at Auburn University in Alabama.
Says Thomas Chouvenc, associate professor of urban entomology at the University of Florida: “Just the fact that this study exists makes me happy.”
Chouvenc, who was not involved in the research, called the work a “remarkable crossover between paleontology and behavioral ecology.”
Bringing the past to the present
A piece of fossilized amber begins when tree resin flows from damaged trees. Insects on the tree can get stuck in the resin, and when more flows down the trunk, the captors are usually killed, frozen in time.
But it takes about 40,000 years for the resin to completely harden and become amber, an organic gem prized all over the world for its warm color and beauty. (Read: “This ancient ammonite fossilized in tree resin. How’d that happen?“)
When study co-author Aleš Buček, head of the Laboratory of Insect Symbiosis at the Czech Academy of Sciences, found the amber fossil from Kaliningrad, Russia, on a collector’s website, he contacted Mizomoto, who has done previous work on looking for clues to animal behavior through fossils. They quickly purchased the rare find.
First, the team of four experts performed an micro-CT scan to discern the termite pair’s species and sex, which showed a female holding onto the abdomen of a male.
Then, to recreate the prehistoric scene in the lab, the scientists had live mating pairs of Formosan subterranean termites, native to Taiwan and southern China, walk on a sticky surface that simulated tree resin. (Read how termites build their giant mounds.)
Many of the lab termites escaped the gluey trap. In the pairs that did get entangled, the animal tandem running in front would naturally slow down, attempting to escape the goo. Its partner wouldn’t run away at this sign of trouble—possibly because mating termites try to stay together so they can nest and begin raising young, Chouvenc says.
Instead, the partner generally walked around the first, eventually coming into the same side-by-side position as the fossilized pair before also getting stuck.
A male and female Formosan subterranean termites display tandem running, a mating behavior.
Photograph By Aleš Buček
‘Unicorn’ fossil
These findings suggest the extinct termites behaved the same way, 38 million years ago, according to the study.
“I am impressed on the find itself, and on the analysis they did to make their compelling case that yes, this is a snapshot of a behavior that happened long time ago.” (Smallest-ever dinosaur fossil found trapped in amber)
“Fossils are common. Preserved behavior over millions of years is a unicorn,” he adds by email.
For Mizumoto, the study also drives home the potential for more communication between researchers within different scientific fields.
“There is a big disconnect between researchers studying fossils and researchers studying living animals or insects,” he says, adding he hopes more crossover between the two can unravel more mysteries of animal behavior.
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