By Will Dunham (Reuters) -Scientists have identified the fossilized remains of the oldest-known ant - a winged insect with fearsome scythe-like jaws that lived about 113 million years ago during the age of dinosaurs and was preserved in limestone unearthed in northeastern Brazil.

Researchers in Brazil found a fossilized hell ant in a rock, suggesting the insect was more widespread than previously thought.

A 113-million-year-old hell ant that once lived in northeastern Brazil is now the oldest ant specimen known to science, finds a report publishing in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 24.