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Ichnoentomology pp 285–312Cite as

The Trace Fossil Record of Eusociality in Ants and Termites

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Part of the book series: Topics in Geobiology ((TGBI,volume 37))

Abstract

The case of false fossil termite nests in current literature. Categorization of fossil ant and termite nests according to different criteria of reliability. The ichnogenera attributed to ants and termites: Archeoentomichnus, Attaichnus, Barberichnus, Coatonichnus, Daimoniobarax, Fleaglellius, Krausichnus, Masrichnus, Microfavichnus, Parowanichnus, Socialites, Syntermesichnus, Tacuruichnus, Termitichnus, and Vondrichnus and their ichnospecies are reviewed. In all cases they are composed of chambers of different sizes and shapes connected by tunnels. In some of them the distinction between tunnels and chambers is sharp, whereas in others they are less distinguishable. They may be complex, well differentiated and very extended structures or in other cases more diffuse and small. In some cases they are clearly attributable to extant taxa, whereas the affinities of some other are questioned. Color plates of type material, morphological details and representative cases are provided.

“Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare the frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labour…I collected bones from charnel-houses… I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet…Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch… when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived”

(Mary Shelley, 1818, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus)

“…It is necessary to emphasize that a termite mound is not a random combination of structural elements of termite architecture…”(Genise et al. 2005, Comment-advanced Early Jurassic termite nests)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Council of Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Jorge Fernando Genise (Principal Researcher, Founder)

  2. National Ichnological Collection and Division Icnología of the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, President of the First International Congress on Ichnology (Ichnia 2004), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Jorge Fernando Genise (Principal Researcher, Founder)

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Genise, J.F. (2017). The Trace Fossil Record of Eusociality in Ants and Termites. In: Ichnoentomology. Topics in Geobiology, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28210-7_12

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