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SCIENTISTS have created a race of mutant mega ants with giant heads and huge jaws after activating ancient genes in the bugs.

Boffins dabbed the larvae of normal ants with a special hormone to transform them into nightmarish 'supersoldiers'.

It's believed the monsters may be a genetic throwback to an ancestor that lived millions of years ago, according to research published today in the journal Science.

Supersoldier ants can occur naturally in the wild and grow to around 4mm, but only rarely.

Their job in the deserts of America and Mexico is to protect the colony from raids by invading army ants and to block nest entrances with their large heads.

Report authors Dr Rajendhran Rajakumar, from McGill University, Canada, and colleagues wrote: "We uncovered an ancestral development potential to produce a novel supersoldier subcaste that has been retained throughout a hyperdiverse ant genus that evolved 35 to 60 million years ago."

Scientists showed that ordinary ants of the Pheidole morrisi species contain all the genetic material needed to turn them into supersoldiers.

The results suggest that holding on to ancestral development toolkits may play an important role in evolving new physical traits, said the researchers.