Australian termites followed similar evolutionary path to humans, study finds

DNA sequencing shows insects crossed oceans then migrated from treetops to the ground to adapt to ancient climate change

A new paper shows that the ancient ancestors of termites found in northern Australia crossed vast distances over oceans, and then followed an evolutionary path similar to humans, migrating from tree-tops to the ground.

Mounds sometimes reaching as high as eight metres and housing millions of individual insects are seen in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and far north Queensland, built by cathedral termites. Relative to the animals' 3mm height and the average human height the termite mounds are the equivalent to four of the world's tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, stacked on top of each other.