Bees Underwent Massive Extinction Along With Dinosaurs, Researchers Say

By: By Laura Dattaro

Published: October 25,2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

New researchers shows that bees underwent a massive extinction around the same time as the dinosaurs. (Johnny N. Dell/Bugwood.org)

Around 65 million years ago, about 80 percent of all species on Earth went extinct, likely due to a massive impact from space. The dinosaurs are the most famous victims of this extinction event, but, for the first time, researchers have used the DNA of living bees to show that their ancestors also suffered a mass extinction.
Sandra Rehan, a biologist at the University of New Hampshire, led a team that sequenced the DNA of 230 species of carpenter bees in order to reconstruct their evolutionary tree. They used bees fossilized in amber about 45 million years ago to put time markers on the tree’s branches, and in that way were able to trace back the ancestry of the bee species.
They found that about 65 million years ago, at what scientists called the K-T Boundary — the border between the Cretaceous and Paleogene geologic periods — there was a period of stasis in the bees’ evolution, which indicates an extinction event. Rehan estimates that about 90 percent of bee species died off during this time.
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“We know very much about the dinosaurs because they were preserved very well — they’re very large animals with large remains that we can find,” Rehan told Weather.com. “This implies that perhaps there are more things that were affected in a bad way. Maybe they weren’t wiped out entirely, but many things respond to environmental change. Here we’re seeing evidence that even insects, bees in particular, were affected.”
Comparing this bee extinction to today’s troubling bee die-off is like comparing “apples and oranges,” Rehan said, and not the point of the study. The prehistoric extinction was caused by large geologic changes related to an impact, while the current bee problem is likely caused by human factors such as land use and pesticides. Still, she said, any new information learned about bees is helpful.
“We can use the information to understand how bees might respond or to understand how bees will be able to cope with diversity,” Rehan said. “Any time we have information on how bees have evolved and survived or not would be the history of their life, the history of their speciation or extinction. We know so little about the bees.”
The team plans to look next at different groups of bees to see whether their findings are consistent across different groups.

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Dinosaur paleontologist Scott Sampson makes remarks as he stands next to a reconstruction of a Nasutoceratops titusi during a news conference at the Natural History Museum of Utah, Wednesday, July 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)