{"684659":{"#nid":"684659","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Ant queen lays eggs that hatch into two species","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EReproduction is strange in many social insects, but the Iberian harvester ant (\u003Cem\u003EMessor ibericus\u003C\/em\u003E) takes the weirdness to the next level. Queens mate with males of another species and then clone them, researchers report today in \u003Cem\u003ENature\u003C\/em\u003E, which means this ant is \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09425-w\u0022\u003Ethe only known organism that propagates two species by itself\u003C\/a\u003E. Evolutionary biologist Jonathan Romiguier of the University of Montpellier, who led the team, calls \u003Cem\u003EM. ibericus\u003C\/em\u003E \u201cin a sense, the most complex, colonial life form we know of so far.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe finding \u201cis almost impossible to believe and pushes our understanding of evolutionary biology,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/michael-goodisman\u0022\u003EMichael Goodisman\u003C\/a\u003E, an evolutionary biologist and professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not involved with the new research. \u201cJust when you think you\u2019ve seen it all, social insects reveal another surprise.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EReproduction is strange in many social insects, but the Iberian harvester ant (\u003Cem\u003EMessor ibericus\u003C\/em\u003E) takes the weirdness to the next level. Queens mate with males of another species and then clone them, researchers report today in \u003Cem\u003ENature\u003C\/em\u003E, which means this ant is \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09425-w\u0022\u003Ethe only known organism that propagates two species by itself\u003C\/a\u003E. Evolutionary biologist Jonathan Romiguier of the University of Montpellier, who led the team, calls \u003Cem\u003EM. ibericus\u003C\/em\u003E \u201cin a sense, the most complex, colonial life form we know of so far.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe finding \u201cis almost impossible to believe and pushes our understanding of evolutionary biology,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/michael-goodisman\u0022\u003EMichael Goodisman\u003C\/a\u003E, an evolutionary biologist and professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not involved with the new research. \u201cJust when you think you\u2019ve seen it all, social insects reveal another surprise.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"36583","created_gmt":"2025-09-08 20:47:25","changed_gmt":"2025-09-09 17:16:28","author":"lvidal7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"Science Magazine","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/ant-queen-lays-eggs-hatch-two-species","dateline":{"date":"2025-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"7802","name":"evolutionary biology"},{"id":"192250","name":"cos-microbial"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}