Myanmyrma
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Myanmyrma Temporal range: Earliest Cenomanian |
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| M. gracilis holotype | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Euarthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Genus: | †Myanmyrma |
| Species: | †M. gracilis |
| Binomial name | |
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Myanmyrma gracilis Engel & Grimaldi, 2005 |
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Myanmyrma is an extinct genus of ants not placed into any Formicidae subfamily. Fossils of the single known species, Myanmyrma gracilis, are known from the Middle Cretaceous of Asia. The genus is one of several ants described from Middle Cretaceous ambers of Myanmar.
Myanmyrma is known from three total adult fossils, the holotype, specimen number "AMNH Bu-014", and two additional fragmentary adults not designated as paratypes. At the time of the genus description, the three specimens were residing in the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City. All the described specimens are of worker caste adults females which have been preserved as inclusions in transparent chunks of Burmese amber. The amber specimen was recovered from deposits in Kachin State, 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Myitkyina in Myanmar. Burmese amber has been radiometrically dated using U-Pb isotopes, yielding an age of approximately 98.79 ± 0.62 million years old, close to the Aptian – Cenomanian boundary, in the earliest Cenomanian.
The fossil was first studied by paleoentomologists Michael Engel and David Grimaldi, both of the American Museum of Natural History. Engel and Grimaldi's 2005 type description of the new genus and species was published in the journal American Museum Novitates. The genus name Myanmyrma was coined as a combination of the suffix "myrma" which is commonly used in ant genus names, and Myanmar, in recognition of the country of origin. The specific epithet gracilis was based from the Latin word "gracilis" meaning slender, a reference to the elongated nature of the legs and body.Myanmyrma is one of several ant genera described from Burmese amber the others being Burmomyrma, Haidomyrmex, Sphecomyrmodes, and Zigrasimecia.
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