Viserion and Drogo, two of the dragons of American medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones, came to life in today’s world as ants. The large and distinctive spines of the two new species found in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea and Fiji, have reminded researchers of dragons in this series, which have inspired them when naming the creatures.
Pheidole Viserion and Pheidole drogon are the two new ants that include the genus Pheidole , containing over a thousand species distributed throughout the world. Usually worker ants or ‘soldiers’ of this kind have a much larger jaw and a head relative to their bodies.
The process of identification, documentation and appointment of new species, taxonomy, is one of the oldest and most basic tasks of biology. Traditionally, new species are described with photographs, drawings and verbal descriptions.
However, in this study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, the authors have used a new 3D imaging technology called X-ray microtomography with -similar to computed tomography used in hospitals-which allows a much higher resolution of objects as small as ants.
digital sampler
The researchers used 3D images along with more traditional techniques to create digitized samples of each species found, both new and previously known.
Once an ant is explored by this method, it becomes virtual and shows ‘live’ in 3D, facilitating that can be shared with other scientists around the world.
