Note that we are told that the find “helps track the evolution of eyes and vision in arthropods over time” but in this case, it appears that their wasn’t much evolution: They “developed apposition compound eyes during the earliest evolutionary stages of the group and stuck with this design throughout their history.” No matter the history, Darwin must be placated.
Tag: bees
A bee from 100 million years ago
Just another bee, generally, but possibly thrown off course by parasites, it seems to have landed in resin. You’d almost think time didn’t happen the way they say. In terms of how much it changes.
A first: Solitary bees serve as stepdads
If this report is a first, we might want to go a bit light on the traditional Darwinism while more bees are researched. If people used to think males wouldn’t do this, they will realize that one can be mistaken; those who rush in with an easy traditional answer might be too.
Alfred Russel Wallace’s giant bee turns out not to be extinct
Wallace “described the female bee, which is about as long as an adult human’s thumb and about four times larger than a European honeybee, as ‘a large black wasp-like insect, with immense jaws like a stag-beetle.'” – One of the finders
Honey bees’ unusual defence: Shimmering
It’s now thought that honey bees “shimmer” in order to protect themselves from hornets: What this essentially does it make is extremely difficult for hornets to swoop in and land on their massive huddle to prey on individual bees. Kastberger and his colleagues noted in their research that shimmering can create what they described as Read More…
Researchers: The selfish gene does not drive cooperation after all
From ScienceDaily: Genetics isn’t as important as once thought for the evolution of altruistic social behavior in some organisms, a new insight into a decade-long debate. This is the first empirical evidence that suggests social behavior in eusocial species — organisms that are highly organized, with divisions of infertile workers — is only mildly attributed Read More…