Jan 21, 2026 08:00:00

Research results show that mammals have evolved into ant-eaters 12 times independently

When people think of 'ant-eating mammals,'

anteaters are often the first to come to mind, but there are other mammals that eat ants (myrmecophagy) . Research has shown that mammals with this ant-eating habit evolved independently 12 times since the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.

Post K-Pg rise in ant and termite prevalence underlies convergent dietary specialization in mammals | Evolution | Oxford Academic
https://academic.oup.com/evolut/article-abstract/79/10/2315/8155241

Mammals Evolved into Ant Eaters 12 Times Since Dinosaur Age, Study Finds | NJIT News
https://news.njit.edu/mammals-evolved-ant-eaters-12-times-dinosaur-age-study-finds

Today, over 200 species of mammals eat ants and termites. However, only about 20 species, including the giant anteater , aardvark , and pangolin, have evolved features specifically tailored to ant eating, such as long, sticky tongues, specialized claws and stomachs, and reduced or missing teeth. These allow them to consume tens of thousands of ants per day, using ants as their almost sole food source.

To investigate how mammals evolved to eat ants, a research team from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the US and the University of Bonn in Germany analysed nearly a century of natural history records, conservation reports, taxonomic descriptions and dietary datasets covering 4,099 mammal species.

'Collecting dietary data for almost all living mammals was a challenging task, but it really highlights the diversity of diets and ecosystems within the mammalian kingdom,' said lead author Thomas Wieda of the University of Bonn. 'We have fruit-eating foxes, krill-eating seals, and sap-drinking primates, but very few species rely solely on ants or termites... the necessary ecomorphological adaptations are a major barrier.'

According to Vida, ants and termites have such low energy intake that even small mammals like numbats must eat more than 20,000 ants per day, and the aardwolf , an ant-eating hyena, can eat up to 300,000 termites in a single night.

The research team classified mammals into five groups: 'animals that primarily eat ants and termites,' 'general insectivores,' 'carnivores,' 'omnivores,' and 'herbivores.' They then mapped these groups onto the mammalian family tree. They then used statistical models to reconstruct the diets of their ancestors and investigate how mammals evolved to eat ants.

They found that ant-eating evolved independently in mammals at least 12 times across diverse lineages since the extinction of the dinosaurs approximately 66 million years ago. All ant-eating animals share either insectivore or carnivore ancestors, and insectivores were approximately three times more likely to evolve into ant-eating animals than carnivores.

They also found that several major

families lacked ant- or termite-eating animals, yet accounted for about a quarter of all origins of the carnivora order, including the canids and ursidae.However, they also found that once ant-eating mammals evolved, they rarely reverted to or diversified their original diet.

'In some ways, specializing in ants and termites puts the species in a difficult position, but as long as these social insects dominate the world's biomass , these mammals may have an advantage,' said study co-author Philip Baden, an associate professor of biology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

The team also looked at colony sizes for ants and termites dating back approximately 145 million years to determine when these insects became a reliable year-round food source. Ants belong to the order Hymenoptera , while termites belong to the order Blattocera , so while they are very similar, they are completely different insect lineages.

Today, there are more than 15,000 species of ants and termites, and their combined biomass exceeds that of all mammals. During the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs lived, the biomass of ants and termites was less than 1% of the total insect biomass, but by about 23 million years ago, it had increased to 35% of the total insect biomass. While the reason why ants and termites appeared and increased at roughly the same time is unknown, it is possible that the emergence of seed plants (flowering plants) and the warm climate on Earth about 55 million years ago are related.

'What's clear is that the sheer biomass of ants and termites has triggered a cascade of evolutionary responses in plants and animals,' said Baden. 'What's particularly striking about this study is how powerful a selective pressure ants and termites have acted over the past 50 million years - shaping their environments and literally changing the appearance of entire species.'