Despite causing a global mass extinction, the “dinosaur-killing” asteroid created ideal conditions for fungi to flourish, which witnessed their “golden age.”
The low-light environment caused by the asteroid impact about 66 million years ago helped spread fungi that fed on organic matter, which were abundant at a time when plants and animals were dying out in large numbers.
Scientists pointed out that many animals have been growing their own food long before humans existed.
“Ants have been farming and growing fungi for much longer than humans have been around,” said Ted Schultz, of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and lead author of the study. “Maybe we can learn something from the agricultural success of these ants over the past 66 million years.”
He added: “Extinction events can be huge catastrophes for most organisms, but they can actually be positive for others.”
The asteroid’s collision with Earth filled the atmosphere with dust and debris, blocking out the sun and preventing photosynthesis for years, eliminating nearly half of all plant species on the planet.
However, this was an ideal time for fungi, some of which flourished as they consumed the abundant dead plant material scattered on the ground.
According to scientists, many of the fungi that grew during this time may have been feeding on decomposing leaf litter, bringing them into close contact with ants.
These insects exploited the abundant fungi for food and continued to rely on them as life recovered from the extinction event.
The study found that it took about another 40 million years for ants to develop agriculture.
When the ants brought the fungi out of humid forests into drier areas, the isolated fungi became completely dependent on the ants to survive in the arid conditions, as the ants domesticated these fungi in the same way that humans domesticated crops.
The ants known as “leafcutter ants” are among the best species of ants that practice the most advanced strategy of agriculture.
This type of ants harvest parts of fresh plants to provide food for the fungi, which in turn produce food for the ants.
Dr. Schultz has spent 35 years studying the evolutionary relationship between ants and fungi, and over the years his team has collected thousands of genetic samples of ants and fungi from all over the tropics.
In the study, the scientists used samples to collect genetic data for 475 different species of fungi, 288 of which are grown by ants, and 276 different species of ants, 208 of which grow fungi.
Using this data, scientists were able to determine when ants began using certain fungi. The study found that ants and fungi have been intertwined for 66 million years, since the time an asteroid hit Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period.
Source: Independent
#study #discovers #ants #exploited #dinosaur #killer #asteroid #million #years
