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MONTREAL — Researchers led by a McGill University biology professor have managed to create new types of “super soldier” ants and, in the process, may have solved an important evolutionary puzzle.

The scientists applied juvenile hormone to various ant larvae at crucial stages in their development, resulting in the emergence of the super soldiers, whose bodies react to stress by expanding in size. The ants also have huge oblong heads and giant, vicious mandibles, which the insects use to defend their colonies.

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Super soldiers occur naturally in some ant species – notably in the southwestern United States – but according to McGill’s Ehab Abouheif, his team did not expect to be able to create them in colonies where they had never been seen before.

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The findings are groundbreaking for evolutionary theory, Abouheif said, because they show dormant genetic potential can be locked in place for millions of years, only to re-emerge as a result of environmental conditions.