Termites build their homes to last. The evidence is
in New Mexico, where a team of University of Colorado scientists
have identified termite mounds dating back to the Jurassic period,
155 million years ago. More than 100 sandstone pillars, some as
high as 20 feet and six feet in diameter, were found over the last
two years near the town of Gallup in northwestern New Mexico.
“These things are gigantic and well constructed,” says Stephen
Hasiotis, the geobiologist who directed the study. The mounds were
formerly thought to be fulgurites, rock fused by lightning strikes;
closer investigation revealed a system of chambers and galleries
comparable to contemporary termite nests. Hasiotis says the insects
originally built the nests in sand dunes, bonding together grains
of sand using saliva, feces and partially digested woody material.
Over time, geologic uplifting pushed the pillars to the surface,
where wind and water eroded the earth around them. What makes the
fossilized find exciting, says Hasiotis, is that the mounds offer
clues to the biological diversity of the period. “What might have
eaten the ancient termites,” says Hasiotis, “were low-slung armored
dinosaurs like stegosaurs or anklyosaurs.”
Contact Stephen Hasiotis at 303/499-9413, or
write the University of Colorado at Boulder, Office of Public
Relations, 354 Willard Administrative Center, Campus Box 9,
Boulder, CO 80309-0009.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Termite tenacity.
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