

Termites Are Guardians of the Soil - dnetesn
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/termites-are-guardians-of-the-soil.html?ref=science

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bediger4000
This is kind of a weird article. For instance, a photo of a chimp sitting on a
termite mound is partially captioned with "A chimpanzee learning how to fish
honey out of a termite hole ...". Ummm, _bees_ make honey, not termites. Also,
mix metaphors much?

The second weirdness is the "guardians of the soil" business. Apparently
termites evolved from cockroaches probably in the Triassic period
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite#Evolutionary_history](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite#Evolutionary_history)).
Was there a "soil revolution" after termites came along as guardians? What
carpeted the ground in the Permian and earlier periods? Was there a different
kind of "soil" back then?

