In a brand-new paleontological site on the shore of Odemira, hundreds of mummified bees in their cocoons have been discovered on the southwest coast of Portugal.
According to the study, which was published in the international scientific journal Papers in Paleontology, this process of fossilization is quite uncommon and generally the skeleton of these insects quickly decomposes since it is composed of the organic composite chitinous material.
Pharaoh Siamun ruled Lower Egypt around 2975 years ago; the Zhou Dynasty ended in China; Solomon was set to succeed David as king of Israel; and the tribes in the region that is now Portugal were nearing the end of the Bronze Age. Specifically, on the present-day site of Odemira in southwest Portugal, something unique and unusual had just occurred: hundreds of bees perished inside their cocoons and were preserved down to the tiniest anatomical details.
According to Carlos Neto de Carvalho, scientific coordinator of Geopark Naturtejo, a UNESCO Global Geopark and collaborating researcher at Instituto Dom Luiz at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon - Ciênci, "The degree of preservation 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 supply of monofloral pollen left by
According to Carlos Neto de Carvalho, the project found four paleontological sites with thousands of fossilized bee cocoons in a one-meter-square area. These locations were discovered on the Odemira coast, halfway between Vila Nova de Milfontes and Odeceixe. Odemira is a municipality that enthusiastically supported the execution of this scientific study and permitted its carbon-14 dating.
According to Andrea Baucon, one of the co-authors of the current investigation and a paleontologist at the University of Siena (Italy), "With a fossil record of 100 million years of nests and hives attributed to the bee family, the truth is that the fossilization of its user is practically non-existent."
The young adults of the Eucera bee that were never able to see the light of day are preserved like in a sarcophagus in the cocoons that have recently been discovered and were created over three thousand years ago. There are currently roughly 700 species of bees on the Portuguese mainland. The interior of the cocoons are shown to be lined with an elaborate thread made of an organic polymer by the mother at the recently found paleontological site. Sometimes, you can still find some of the monofloral pollen within that the mother left behind and that the larva would have consumed throughout its early life. The mummified bees inside enclosed cocoons could be seen perfectly and in three dimensions thanks to the use of microcomputed tomography.
This specimen was extracted from the sediment filling a cocoon. Credit: Andrea Baucon.
Bees, which have more than 20,000 species and are crucial pollinators, have seen a sharp decline in population as a result of human activity, which has been linked to climate change. Understanding the biological factors that caused bee colonies to die and be mummified nearly three thousand years ago could aid in understanding and establishing resilience tactics to climate change. For the southwest coast, the climate period that occurred almost three thousand years ago was characterized, in general, by colder and rainier winters than the present-day ones.
According to Carlos Neto de Carvalho, "A sharp drop in nighttime temperatures at the end of winter or a protracted flooding of the area outside of the rainy season could have caused the death by cold or asphyxiation, and mummification, of hundreds of these small bees."
The municipalities of Castelo Branco, Idanha-a-Nova, Oleiros, Penamacor, Proença-a-Nova, Vila Velha de Ródo (in the district of Castelo Branco), and Nisa (Portalegre) are a component of the Naturtejo Geopark of Meseta Meridional, which is a member of the UNESCO global network.
