TPO45 Integrated

Both the reading and the lecture talk about whether or not there have been bees from 200 million years ago. The reading presents some skeptics indicating that bees did not exist 200 million years ago. The professor, nevertheless, casts doubt on this claim by bringing up three reasons to refute the author's view.

Firstly, the author alleges that, since the first preserved fossil of real bees has 100 million years old, they were not bees 200 million years ago. Conversely, the lecturer rejects this view and highlights that, in order to maintain bees' fossil, they needed the tree resin, a kind of sticky liquid, which was not available 200 years ago, while they were common later. As a result, it is possible that there were bees 200 million years ago.

Secondly, the reading holds the view that there were no flowering plants 200 years ago. In fact, there is an adhere mutual relation between bees and flowers, which bees usually feed on them. Duse, bees did not exist 200 million years ago. In contrast, the professor refuses this viewpoint, stating that, although flowering plants did not exist 200 years ago, bees might have fed on non-flowering plants such as pine trees or ferns. After the appearance of flowering plants, they were eaten by bees.

Finally, the author points out that, despite being some similarity between fossilized structures and nest chambers made by modern bees, fossilized structures do not have caps, having a spiral pattern. Consequently, such fossilized structures might be built by other insects. The lecturer, however, opposes this issue due to the fact that modern bees' nest was preserved by a chemical substance, which has the ability to be waterproof. Such that chemical substance also is founded in the fossilized structures. Therefore, it realizes that fossilized structures were made by bees.