Re: Ant Hill Paleontology

[Adrienne Mayor <afmayor@aol.com>]

Thanks to everyone who replied on and off line to my query about Ant  
Hill paleontology. The response was overwhelming! I really appreciate  
your generosity in sharing experiences, facts, speculations, and  
references.

Searching ant hills for minerals, micro-artifacts, and micro-fossils  
is a venerable "folk" method of prospecting, a topic I've been  
gathering material on for the past decade. Some paleontologists have  
already begun approaching this useful ant behavior scientifically.  
I'm collaborating with a myrmecologist at Stanford, who studies how  
and why ants collect porous items (bits of charcoal, minerals, and  
micro-fossils) and transport them to the nest midden. Even though  
they also bring such items up when tunneling, the ants may do more  
surface-surveying than core-sampling, as many of you have already  
discovered from observation. Apparently, the ants seek out porous  
objects that are easily marked with pheromones. Further studies are  
ongoing, to understand the ant's "reasons" and to obtain average  
distances of fossil transport. Your field observations from so many  
difference localities will yield valuable evidence.

I'll keep the lists posted on any futher myrmecological developments  
that would be of value in paleontology.

Thank you!