Formicium (Titanomyrma) giganteum, or simply the giant ant, is a species of large prehistoric insect that lived during the Eocene epoch in what is now Europe.
Facts[]
Formicium was a genus of giant ant that lived in the Eocene. Its name is a derivative of the Latin word "formica", meaning "ant", and the Latin suffix "-ium". The genus contains three species, though it previously had five. The two former species, F. giganteum and F. simillima, were later reassigned to the genus Titanomyrma, which roughly translates to "prodigiously-sized ant" from the Greek words "titan" and "myrmex". However, despite this reassignment, this article will continue referring T. gigantea as F. giganteum.
Well preserved fossils of F. giganteum have been discovered in the Messel Formation, near the village of Messel, Hessen, 30 km south of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was the largest species of ant to ever exist, with the workers measuring anywhere between 1 to 3 cm long and the queens measuring up to 5.5 cm long and having a wingspan of 13 cm. Another species, T. simillima (previously known as F. simillima), is also known from the Messel Formation though it was slightly smaller than F. giganteum, while an undescribed species of Titanomyrma, comparable in size to T. simillima and the North American T. lubei, has been reported from the Eckfeld Maar near Manderscheid, Germany.
In Walking with... series[]
Walking with Beasts[]
New Dawn[]
Formicium appeared in the first episode of Walking with Beasts where they had successfully attacked and killed a Gastornis chick. Just like their real-life counterparts, the giant ants of WWB died-out at the end of the Eocene epoch, when the global jungles vanished, and the global oxygen levels and temperatures dropped.
Gallery[]
Errors[]
Though its name is never mentioned in the series, the Walking with Beasts companion book identifies the giant ant as Formicium giganteum. However, since the airing of New Dawn, Formicium giganteum was reassigned to the genus Titanomyrma as Titanomyrma gigantea in 2011.
Trivia[]
- The giant ant is the only giant insect featured in the Walking With... series that is not from the Carboniferous period.