TPO 45 Integrated Writing Task

The reading and the lecture are both about existing of bees on Earth as early as ‎‎200 million years ago. The author of the article provides three views of the ‎skeptics doubting that the bees did not exist 200 million years ago. The lecturer ‎disputes the claims made in the passage. Her position is that the theories are not ‎convincing.‎

According to the reading, there are no fossil remnants of actual bees in ‎the fossilized structures for 200 million years ago. This specific argument ‎is challenged by the lecturer. She claims that for fossilizing the bees, ‎some sticky substance should exist. This sticky substance is produced by ‎a particular tree that was rare 200 million years ago. As a result, the ‎bees might exist 200 million years ago, but the substance fossilizing ‎them was not available.‎

Secondly, the author suggests that flowering plants were absent 200 ‎million years ago, which are the main source of bees’ food. The ‎professor, however, asserts that bees fed on non-flowering plants 200 ‎million years ago, such as pine trees. By emerging flowering plants, bees ‎adapted to feed on them. ‎

Finally, the writer posits that the nest chambers found in Arizona lack some of the ‎finer details of modern bees' nests. In contrast, the lecturer's stance is that ‎chemical experiences show that the 200 million-year chambers have a water-‎proof substance as the modern chambers have.‎