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A bee from 100 million years ago

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Just another bee, generally, but possibly thrown off course by parasites, it seems to have landed in Burmese amber:

The fossilized bee shares traits with modern bees — including plumose hairs, a rounded pronotal lobe, and a pair of spurs on the hind tibia — and also those of apoid wasps, such as very low-placed antennal sockets and certain wing-vein features. “Something unique about the new family that’s not found on any extant or extinct lineage of apoid wasps or bees is a bifurcated scape,” Poinar said, referring to a two-segment antennae base. “The fossil record of bees is pretty vast, but most are from the last 65 million years and look a lot like modern bees. Fossils like the one in this study can tell us about the changes certain wasp lineages underwent as they became palynivores — pollen eaters.” Numerous pollen grains on Discoscapa apicula show the bee had recently been to one or more flowers.

Oregon State University, “Fossilized insect from 100 million years ago is oldest record of primitive bee with pollen” at ScienceDaily

You’d almost think time didn’t happen the way they say. In terms of how much it changes.

The paper is open access.

See also: Stasis: When life goes on but evolution does not happen

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