Researchers looked at a bee fossil to determine climate conditions during the Pleistocene ice age.
The ancient insects were excavated from California's La Brea Tar Pits, a Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County news release reported. In order to make their findings the researchers examined fossil leafcutter bee nest cells that contained tiny pupae. The team used CT scans to recreate what these bees and nest cells would have looked like.
The team used these fossilized insects to gain insight into environmental and climate conditions during the last ice age.
The CT scans were helpful in determining if each nest (which was made from leaves) contained pupae. The team looked the "physical features of the bees, the nest cell architecture, and used environmental niche model" to compare the ancient bees to modern day Megachile gentilis.
The team's findings suggest the ice age M. gentilis lived in a "moderately moist (mesic) environment that occurred at a lower elevation during the Late Pleistocene," the news release reported. Properties of the nest cell leaf fragments suggested they were once located in a wooded area or near a stream or river.
The fossils were found in Pit 91; since the beginning of the 20th century over five million fossils have been recovered from the tar pits, encompassing over 600 species of plants and animals.
"This vast treasure trove of fossils is key to understanding the response of the wildlife and habitats of Southern California to global cooling and warming at the end of the Ice Age," Doctor John Harris, Chief Curator of the Page Museum, said in the news release. "It affords an evolutionary perspective to ongoing climate change."
"Because this is a fossil of rare life-stage, it's an exceptional find in itself," Holden said. "But it's just the tip of the iceberg, we know that insects offer a vivid portrait of the prehistoric conditions of this area, and there are literally thousands more to study," study leader Anna R. Holden of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), said in the news release.
