Hundreds of mummified bees inside cocoons created nearly 3,000 years ago have been found on the southwest coast of Portugal, in a new paleontological site in Odemir.
The discovery of mummified bees by a professor in the Department of Crystallography, Mineralogy and Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Seville, Fernando Munizpublished in an international journal Articles on paleontology.
The study details the appearance of bees “ready to leave their nests or cells”. in an exceptional state of preservation”, or the mummified ones found inside their cocoons. They contain pollen reserves of the type cabbage, that is, they are descended from common herbaceous species, but show a distinct taste for a single monofloral variety.
The good grade of the fossil in which the bees were found is “extremely rare” according to the authors of the publication, as normally the skeleton of these insects decomposes quickly. Thus, thanks to the excellent state of preservation, the research team was able to determine the type of bee, its gender and even the contribution of pollen left by the mother when she created the cocoon.
Lack of oxygen and temperature changes contributed to the existence of mummified bees.
Bees are one of the most important groups of insect pollinators and include over 20,000 species. Approximately three-quarters of all wild bee species nest on the ground and spend most of their life cycle underground, making it easier preservation of their nesting structures.
In a published article, researchers describe dense clusters of thousands of fossil nests found per square meter in southwestern Portugal. These nests or cells have been attributed mainly to the ichnogenus. Palmyraichnus.
The finds of this ichnogenus represent a unique opportunity to study in detail the well-preserved nest architecture and possible environmental causes of death and burial this has led to the preservation of specimens from 3,000 years ago.
According to the study, while the cause of death of these found mummified bees remains a mystery, oxygen depletion due to flash flooding and the subsequent drop in night-time temperatures could be likely causes. The southwestern coast of Portugal lived in the neoglacial interval with somewhat colder periods and more precipitation in winter, favorable climatic conditions for the study of these fossils.
“Bees are important insect pollinators of ecosystems, so their decline will directly affect biodiversity, that is, the many plant and animal species that directly or indirectly depend on them, including us humans. For example, bees are known to pollinate 70% of crops that people eat and 30% livestock feed. Human activities such as intensive agriculture, the use of pesticides and insecticides, and climate change are currently causing one in ten bee species to be endangered in Europe,” Muñiz emphasizes.
“Knowing and interpreting the ecological causes of both the presence of this population of bees and their death and mummification 3,000 years ago could help understand and develop resilience strategies in the face of climate change. Like, for example, comparing environmental imbalances caused by natural parameters with current imbalances and how they affect current bee species,” explains the lead author, Carlos Neto de Carvalho.
Source: Hiper Textual
