The flowers and mamong bees were found with evidence of their interaction in the form of preserved pollen grains. The findings show that the mamangavas were already among the most important pollinators of Tilia millions of years ago, as today, and fossil bees are among the oldest representatives of their genus, Bombus.
A team of paleontologists found fossilized flowers from Tilia and bees in sediments 24 million years old in Germany, Press reported Europe on Monday.
“This is the first time in the world that a fossil flower and its pollinating bees have been described from the same sediments and are directly linked to each other through pollen,” said the main author of the investigation and a doctoral student at the University of Vienna, Austria, Christian Geier.
The flowers and mamangavas bees were found along with evidence of their interaction in the form of preserved pollen grains. The findings show that the mamangavas were already among the most important pollinators of Tilia millions of years ago, as today, and fossil bees are among the oldest representatives of their genus, Bombus.
Insect and pollinators populations, such as wild bees, are disappearing and is increasingly important to understand the origins and evolution of floral pollination, According to the authors of the study published in the scientific journal New Phytologist.
“The studied bees show a certain degree of floral constancy, that is, the mamangabas visited only one type of plant during a single flight,” indicated the main author of the study.
“Discoveries like these (the only flight) are important for a better understanding of the delicate interaction and resilience of current ecosystems,” according to Christian Geier, who is taking a doctorate in the Division of Structural and Functional Botany of the University of Vienna.
Fossil registration provided information on dynamic developments in the past, such as Changes due to climate change, endings of species and evolutionary adaptations. According to the study, numerous bees had already visited the Tilias before drowned in an ancient volcanic crater lake and fossilizing.
The Enstia flowers were called Tilia Magnasepala, which means’ Tilia with large sepals and two new bee species were named, Bombus (Kronobombus) Messegus and Bombus (TimeBombus) Paleocateraccording to Christian Geier.
Bee names refer to age, morphological characteristics and where they were found. The fossils were found during excavations in the sediments of the old volcanic lake near Enspel, in the state of the palatinated Rhineland, Germany.
