Abstract
100 Ma sweat bee nests reported herein are the oldest evidence of crown bees. A new phylogeny for short-tongued bees, calibrated with these nests dated with 40Ar/39Ar, attests for the first time for a late Albian rapid diversification of bees along with angiosperms. Such hypothesis lacked paleontological support until this study. The new ichnospecies Cellicalichnus krausei, which was found along with wasp trace fossils and new beetle trace fossils in the Castillo Formation of Patagonia, represents typical Halictini nests composed of sessile cells that are attached to main tunnels. According to geological, paleosol, paleobotanical, and ichnological data, bees, and angiosperms cohabited in an inland and dry environment comparable to an open dry woodland or savanna, under warm-temperate and semiarid-subhumid climate, in the Southern Hemisphere by the Albian.
Publication types
-
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
-
Animals
-
Bees / anatomy & histology
-
Bees / genetics
-
Bees / physiology*
-
Biodiversity
-
Biological Evolution*
-
Ecosystem
-
Fossils / anatomy & histology
-
Magnoliopsida / anatomy & histology
-
Magnoliopsida / genetics
-
Magnoliopsida / physiology*
-
Nesting Behavior
-
Paleontology
-
Phylogeny
-
Pollination
Grants and funding
This project was supported by grants from Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica of Argentina FONCYT-PICT (
https://www.argentina.gob.ar › ciencia › agencia) 12/0022 and 17/0779 to JFG, and FONCYT-PICT 12/0326 and 17/1265 to ESB, and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina CONICET-PIP (
www.conicet.gov.ar)13/0058 to ESB and JFG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.