Ancient bees found ‘perfect home’ in owl prey bones, study finds

An illustration showing the bones and bee nests in the cave; (right) a part of a fossilised mammal skull, with sediment in a tooth socket that turned out to be a nest built by a prehistoric bee. PICS COURTESY/Jorge Mario Macho, Machuky Paleoart/Lazaro Vinola Lopez

Researchers uncovered evidence that solitary bees, 20,000 years ago, built nests inside the empty tooth sockets of bones coughed up by owls.

A team from the Field Museum in Chicago excavated these fossils from a Dominican Republic cave on the island of Hispaniola.

The cave floor was covered in layers of fossils - including sloths, birds, and reptiles - mostly derived from owl pellets. Ancient bees used the empty tooth sockets in these bones as nesting sites.

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