X-ray micro-CT of a male Eucera inside its nest. Credit: Fernando Muñiz
Fernando Muñiz, a research scholastic from the University of Seville, participates in a discovery that represents an unique chance in the fight against environment change.
The discovery, with the active participation of Fernando Muñiz, teacher of the Department of Crystallography, Mineralogy and Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Seville, was just recently released in the international journal Papers in Palaeontology, under the title “Eucera bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Eucerini) preserved in their brood cells from late Holocene (middle Neoglacials) palaeosols of southwest Portugal.”
Remarkable Preservation of Bees
The study explains bees “prepared to leave their nests or cells in an extraordinary state of conservation,” discovered inside their cocoons. Food was likewise discovered inside the cocoons that appeared to be Brassicaceae pollen, or rather, taken from common herbaceous types that also show the bees choice for one particular monofloral range.
According to the authors of the research study, the excellent state of fossilization in which the bees were discovered is exceptionally uncommon, given that the skeleton of this kind of bug quickly disintegrates. The splendid level of conservation has enabled the team of private investigators to establish the kind of bee, their sex, and even the pollen left by the mom when developing the cocoon.
Profile of a male Euroceras taken with X-ray micro-CT. Credit: Fernando Muñiz
Possible Causes of Bee Death
Bees are one of the most essential groups of pollinating insects and include over 20,000 types. Approximately three-quarters of all wild bee types nest in the soil and spend many of their life cycle underground, which helps with the preservation of their nesting structures.
In the short article, the investigators describe dense aggregations of thousands of fossil nests per square meter in southwest Portugal. Many of the nests or cells have been designated to the ichnogenera Palmiraichnus.
The discovery of this ichnogenera represents an unique opportunity to study the well-conserved architecture of the nesting sites in higher detail and to establish the possible ecological causes that caused the bees death and the burial that kept the specimens in such a good state of conservation for 3,000 years.
According to the study, the bees cause of death continues to be a mystery, but a scarcity of oxygen caused by abrupt flooding and a consequent drop in nighttime temperature might well be the factors. The southwest coast of Portugal experienced somewhat cooler periods with higher rainfall during winter season in the Neoglacial period, which are favorable climatic conditions for the research study of these fossils.
Value of Bees and Implications for Modern Ecology
” Bees are pollinating bugs and as such are important for communities, to the extent that any reduction in their numbers would straight affect biodiversity, or rather, the lots of types of plants and animals that straight or indirectly depend on them, including humans. We understand that bees pollinate 70% of the crops that people eat and 30% of food for animals. Human activity, such as intensive farming, the usage of insecticides and pesticides, and environment modification are creating a scenario where one in every ten species of bees remains in danger of extinction in Europe,” commented Professor Muñiz.
” Discovering and analyzing the eco-friendly reasons for the presence of this population of bees and why they passed away and were mummified 3,000 years earlier, may assist us to comprehend and develop techniques for resilience in the face of climate change, such as comparing the environmental imbalances triggered by natural parameters and the current ones and the method which they are affecting the bee types these days,” stated the primary detective, Carlos Neto de Carvalho.
Reference: “Eucera bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Eucerini) maintained in their brood cells from late Holocene (middle Neoglacial) palaeosols of southwest Portugal” by Carlos Neto de Carvalho, Andrea Baucon, Davide Badano, Pedro Proença Cunha, Cristiana Ferreira, Silvério Figueiredo, Fernando Muñiz, João Belo, Federico Bernardini and Mário Cachão, 27 July 2023, Papers in Palaeontology.DOI: 10.1002/ spp2.1518.