News Paleontology

Did ancient superbees squash diversity?

By Sid Perkins

The recent discovery of several dozen extinct bee species in ancient amber deposits has paleontologists buzzing. They’re wondering if the very success of some bees’ social lifestyle provided an evolutionary bottleneck that led to today’s dearth of hive-dwelling species.

Competition from a superbee may have driven to extinction the species of these bees, which were trapped in amber millions of years ago. Engel

Entomologist Michael S. Engel of the University of Kansas in Lawrence thinks so. He describes the unexpected diversity of ancient bees and their demise in the Feb. 13 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.