Ancient burrowing bees made their nests in the tooth cavities and vertebrae of dead rodents, scientists discover

Ancient Bee Nests Hiding in Regurgitated, Fossilized Bones

Tens of thousands of years ago, some particularly crafty ancient bees decided to take advantage of the food scraps puked up by owls. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . These cleverly recycled remains were discovered in the Cueva de Mono cave in the south of what’s now the Dominican Republic. There, researchers have encountered fossils mainly from rodents, but also some from birds, sloths, and reptiles. This hodge…

Fossilized Bee Nests Inside Skeletons Are Unlike Anything We've Seen Before

In a first, burrowing bees have been discovered nesting inside the fossil remains of other mammals.

Ancient Bees Found Nested Inside Fossilized Bone — A Behavior Never Seen Before

Learn how environmental constraints and a lack of soil led ancient bees to reuse fossil cavities in a Caribbean cave, leaving the first known evidence of this behavior.

Ancient bees laid eggs inside bones

Bees are frequently associated with large queen-serving colonies featuring hundreds if not thousands of insects. In actuality, that’s usually not the case.“Most bees are solitary. They lay their eggs in small cavities, and they leave pollen for the larvae to eat,” explained paleontologist Lazasro Viñola López. “Some bee species burrow holes in wood or in the ground, or use empty structures for nests.” Viñola López, a researcher at Chicago’s Fiel…

Ancient burrowing bees made their nests in the tooth cavities and vertebrae of dead rodents, scientists discover

Scientists made a unique discovery in a cave on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola: dozens of fossilized bee nests inside rodent bones that were deposited by owls thousands of years ago.

Ancient Bees Burrowed Inside Bones, Fossils Reveal

Bones of now extinct species became a haven for bee babies thousands of years ago, scientists report in a first-of-its-kind discovery