Did bees (a type of insect) exist on Earth as early as 200 million years ago? Such a theory is supported by the discovery of very old fossil structures that resemble bee nests. The structures have been found inside 200- million-year-old fossilized trees in the state of Arizona in the southwestern United States. However, many skeptics doubt that the structures were created by bees. The skeptics support their view with several arguments.
No Fossils of Actual Bees
First, no fossil remains of actual bees have ever been found that date to 200 million years ago. The earliest preserved body of a bee is 100 million years old—only half as old as the fossilized structures discovered in Arizona.
Absence of Flowering Plants
A second reason to doubt that bees existed 200 million years ago is the absence of flowering plants in that period. Today's bees feed almost exclusively on the flowers of flowering plants; in fact, bees and flowering plants have evolved a close, mutually dependent biological relationship. Flowering plants, however, first appeared on Earth 125 million years ago. Given the bees’ close association with flowering plants, it is unlikely bees could have existed before that time.
Structures Lack Some Details
Third, while the fossilized structures found in Arizona are somewhat similar to nest chambers made by modern bees, they lack some of the finer details of bees’ nests. For example, chambers of modern bee nests are closed by caps that have a spiral pattern, but the fossilized chambers lack such caps. That suggests the fossilized structures were made by other insects, such as wood-boring beetles.
The reading and the lecture are both about dig bees' nest fossil. The author of the article believes that the fossil structures do not belong to this insect. The lecturer casts doubt on the claims made in the article. She thinks that these arguments are not convincing.
First of all, the author points out that researchers have not found real bee fossil dating back to that time. It is mentioned that the earliest age of preserved bee is only half of the fossil's found. This point is challenged by the lecturer. She says that the bees were preserved with a sticky liquid secreted by a special kind of tree. She argues that these trees were rare 200 million years ago, and they were common later.
Secondly, the author suggests that there was no flowering plants growing at that ancient time, and there is a close connection between bees and flowers. The article notes that the first flowering plant appeared later than nest fossils' period. The professor rebuts this argument. She contends that early bees could feed on non-flowering plants. She establishes this by saying that bees gradually adapted to flowers and built new relationship with these plants after evolution.
Finally, the author argues that necessary details do not show on these old nests. The article states that they could be created by other insects because they lack caps similar to modern bee nests. The professor, on the other hand, opposes this view by saying that there are chemical evidences to support nests' ownership. She puts forth the idea that the analysis indicates that there are common waterproof material in both modern and fossil nest of bees.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-01-06 | tg763622253 | 76 | view |
| 2018-06-19 | Springlovers | 68 | view |
| 2018-01-06 | tg763622253 | 76 | view |
| 2018-01-06 | tg763622253 | 76 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 158, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...tructures do not belong to this insect. The lecturer casts doubt on the claims made...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, second, secondly, so, kind of, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 22.412803532 161% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 29.0 30.3222958057 96% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1362.0 1373.03311258 99% => OK
No of words: 276.0 270.72406181 102% => OK
Chars per words: 4.9347826087 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.07593519647 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.30841178418 2.5805825403 89% => OK
Unique words: 156.0 145.348785872 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.565217391304 0.540411800872 105% => OK
syllable_count: 396.9 419.366225166 95% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.55342163355 90% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 15.0 21.2450331126 71% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 32.2800247831 49.2860985944 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 75.6666666667 110.228320801 69% => OK
Words per sentence: 15.3333333333 21.698381199 71% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.61111111111 7.06452816374 65% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.239790473652 0.272083759551 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0663618048704 0.0996497079465 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0540885648801 0.0662205650399 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.138308280122 0.162205337803 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0588623433422 0.0443174109184 133% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.5 13.3589403974 71% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 73.17 53.8541721854 136% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 6.8 11.0289183223 62% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.72 12.2367328918 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.1 8.42419426049 96% => OK
difficult_words: 65.0 63.6247240618 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 5.0 10.7273730684 47% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.0 10.498013245 76% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.5 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.