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Myanmar - Oldest bee-fossil
The discovery in northern Myanmar (formerly Burma) of a bee embedded in amber proves that bees have been around for a long time. The fossil is dated at around 100 million years ago—65 million years older than any previous bee-fossil discovery. The discovery, reported in the US journal Science, was made by Bryan Danforth, Cornell Associate Professor of Entomology, and George Poinar from Oregon State University.
The 16000 bee-species that exist today are grouped into seven families, but experts are not sure which of them came first. The latest discovery suggests that the Melitidae family was the first to emerge. Because bees and flowering plants are so closely linked, scientists believe that bees must have evolved about 120 million years ago, in parallel with the evolution of flowering plants.
From Sciencespin via BEES
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