2023-08-25 10:33:25
Image taken with binoculars, corresponding to the details on the back of the specimen. This specimen was extracted from the sediment that filled a cocoon. – ANDREA BAUCON.
MADRID, 25 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Hundreds of mummified bees inside their cocoonsproduced almost 3,000 years ago, have been discovered in a new paleontological site discovered on the coast of Odemira, in Portugal.
The cocoons now discovered are the result of an extremely rare fossilization method: normally the skeleton of these insects decomposes quickly due to its chitinous composition, which is an organic compound.
“The degree of conservation of these bees is so exceptional that we were able to identify not only the anatomical details that determine the type of bee, but also its sex and even the contribution of monofloral pollen left by the mother when she built the cocoon.“, says Carlos Neto de Carvalho, collaborating researcher at the Dom Luiz Institute of the University of Lisbon.
The paleontologist claims that the project that led to this discovery identified four paleontological sites with a high density of bee cocoon fossils, numbering in the thousands in a square one meter on each side. These deposits were found between Vila Nova de Milfontes and Odeceixe, on the coast of Odemira, a municipality that strongly supported the realization of this scientific study, allowing its dating by carbon 14.
“With a 100-million-year-old fossil record of nests and hives attributed to the bee family, the truth is that the fossilization of its user is practically non-existent“, says Andrea Baucon, one of the co-authors of the present work paleontologist at the University of Siena.
The cocoons now discovered, produced almost 3,000 years ago, preserve young adults of the Eucera bee like a sarcophagus that never saw the light of day. This it is one of the approximately 700 species of bees that still exist today in mainland Portugal. The newly discovered paleontological site shows the inside of the cocoons covered with an intricate thread produced by the mother and composed of an organic polymer.
Inside it can sometimes be found remains of monofloral pollen left by the mother, with which the larva would have fed in the early stages of life. The use of microcomputed tomography allows obtaining a perfect and three-dimensional image of mummified bees inside sealed cocoons.
Bees have more than 20,000 existing species around the world and are important pollinators, whose populations have suffered a significant decline due to human activities and that has been associated with climate change. Understand the ecological reasons that led to the death and mummification of bee populations almost 3,000 years ago could help to understand and establish resilience strategies to climate change.
In the case of the southwest coast, the climatic period that existed almost 3,000 years ago was marked, in general, by colder and rainier winters than today.
“A sharp drop in night temperature at the end of winter or a prolonged flooding of the area outside the rainy season could have caused the death, due to cold or suffocation, and the mummification of hundreds of these small bees,” explains Carlos. Net of Carvalho.
The findings are published in the journal Papers in Paleontology.
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