Bees Found a Unique Home in Ancient Rodent Bones

In a surprising twist, scientists discovered that ancient bees had a peculiar nesting habit.

Unusual Nesting Site

They didn't build their homes in typical places like trees or flowers. Instead, they chose to nest inside the bones of dead rodents.

• Location: Over 5,000 years ago on the island of Hispaniola, now home to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
• Bones Chosen: Hollow teeth and vertebrae of rodents called hutias.
• Appearance: These rodents looked like a mix between a squirrel and a beaver.

Discovery Details

The bones were found in a cave, along with some bones from an extinct sloth.

• No New Tunnels: The bees didn't dig new tunnels.
• Ready-Made Chambers: They found ready-made chambers in the bones that were just the right size for their nests.

How the Bones Got There

The bones had been in the cave for a long time before the bees arrived.

• Extinct Barn Owl: Scientists think that an extinct species of barn owl, called Tyto ostologa, brought the bones there.
• Transport Methods: The owl either carried the whole rodents into the cave or regurgitated pellets filled with bones.
• Sediment Cover: Over time, sediment covered these remains. Later, the bees moved in and made their nests.

Multiple Generations of Bees

• Stacked Nests: One tooth cavity had six separate nests stacked inside one another.
• Multiple Generations: This suggests that multiple generations of bees returned to the same spot.
• First Known Example: It's the first known example of bees nesting inside preexisting fossil cavities.
• Second Documented Case: It's also only the second documented case of burrowing bees nesting inside a cave.

Why This Cave?

The surrounding landscape might have left them with few other options.

• Landscape: The area is made of sharp, edgy limestone and has lost all of its natural soils.
• Cave Almost Lost: The cave itself was almost lost.
• Rescue Mission: After one of the team's final visits, plans surfaced to convert the site into a septic storage facility. The team had to go on a rescue mission to save as many fossils as possible.

Current Status

• Plans Fell Through: Those plans fell through, but the fossils were removed anyway.
• Unstudied Fossils: Many of the fossils remain unstudied.
• More Stories to Tell: This means that the strange collaboration between bees, owls, and rodents may have more stories to tell.