News Paleontology

Did ancient superbees squash diversity?

By Sid Perkins

- More than 2 years ago

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.