Archimyrmex piatnitzkyi

Introduction

Archimyrmex piatnitzkyi is an extinct fossil ant species from the Eocene epoch, discovered in the Ventana Formation of Río Negro province, Argentina . Scientists originally described this species in 1957 as Ameghinoia piatnitzkyi before moving it to the genus Archimyrmex in 2003 . It belongs to the subfamily Myrmeciinae, the same group that includes living bulldog ants in Australia . The fossil queens show distinctive features including coarse blunt teeth on their mandibles and an elongated, node-shaped petiole with two segments . Unlike living ants you can keep in a formicarium, this species exists only as fossils in museum collections.