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[attachmentid=106074]
Oregon scientist George Poinar sifts through the mail-order bag of rocks in his basement lab, picking out chunks of amber collected from an Asian mine. In the amber, he hopes to find the preserved remains of ancient plants and animals.
As he painstakingly polishes a small piece of the golden resin, the shadow of a small insect begins to appear. When the view becomes clearer, Poinar realizes he's made a remarkable discovery: a 100-million-year-old bee, the oldest ever found.
The wee bee -- only 0.116 inch long, about the thickness of two pennies -- is about 40 million years older than previously found bees. It's the first bee to be traced back to the age of the dinosaurs. The discovery of the ancient pollinator may help explain the rapid expansion and diversity of flowering plants during that time.
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A 100 Million-Year-Old Bee? Scientists say that is exactly what they have found. If true, the 100 million-year-old bee (that was found trapped in amber) would make it possibly the oldest bee ever found and about 40 million years older than previously found bees.
Oregon scientist George Poinar sifts through the mail-order bag of rocks in his basement lab, picking out chunks of amber collected from an Asian mine. In the amber, he hopes to find the preserved remains of ancient plants and animals.
As he painstakingly polishes a small piece of the golden resin, the shadow of a small insect begins to appear. When the view becomes clearer, Poinar realizes he's made a remarkable discovery: a 100-million-year-old bee, the oldest ever found.
The wee bee -- only 0.116 inch long, about the thickness of two pennies -- is about 40 million years older than previously found bees. It's the first bee to be traced back to the age of the dinosaurs. The discovery of the ancient pollinator may help explain the rapid expansion and diversity of flowering plants during that time.
----
A 100 Million-Year-Old Bee? Scientists say that is exactly what they have found. If true, the 100 million-year-old bee (that was found trapped in amber) would make it possibly the oldest bee ever found and about 40 million years older than previously found bees.
