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Science 27 October 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5799, p. 614
DOI: 10.1126/science.1134103
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Brevia

A Fossil Bee from Early Cretaceous Burmese Amber

G. O. Poinar, Jr.1 and B. N. Danforth2*

The bee fossil record is fragmentary, making it difficult to accurately estimate the antiquity of bee-mediated pollination. Here, we describe a bee fossil [Melittosphex burmensis (new species), Melittosphecidae (new family)] from Early Cretaceous Burmese amber (~100 million years before the present). The fossil provides insights into the morphology of the earliest bees and provides a new minimum date for the antiquity of bees and bee-mediated pollination.

1 Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331–2907, USA.
2 Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853–0901, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bnd1{at}cornell.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Early steps of angiosperm pollinator coevolution.
S. Hu, D. L. Dilcher, D. M. Jarzen, and D. Winship Taylor (2008)
PNAS 105, 240-245
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)