Oldest fossil bee found, according to a report in BBC News and Science vol 314, p614, 27 October 2006. A bee preserved in amber, believed to be 100 million years old has been found in northern Burma. The bee is very small, about 3mm long, and has been classified as belonging to a new family and genus, because it has some features that are different to living bees. It has branched hairs that trap pollen grains like living bees but has narrow hind legs more like wasp. George Poinar of Oregon State University commented to the BBC: “This fossil may help us understand when wasps, which were mostly just meat-eating carnivores, turned into bees that could pollinate plants and serve a completely different biological function.”
Editorial Comment: One well preserved dead insect is not going to explain how one kind of insect could turn into another. The fact that this insect is not the same as a living bee or wasp indicates there were once more different kinds of insects, and this one has since died out. It is not evidence that it turned into another kind of insect. Whatever it was, it was a fully formed functioning insect that could pollinate flowers. The belief that bees, which eat nectar and pollen, evolved from carnivorous wasps is pure faith, because no-one has observed it happen. According to Genesis all animals originally ate plants, so wasps would have started out feeding from pants and only became carnivorous when the supply of plant food decreased as the environment degenerated. (Ref. arthropods, diet, Hymenoptera)
Evidence News 24 April 2007