tpo45 integrated writing

It's perfectly possible that the nests found inside the fossilized trees were made by bees 200 million years ago. The arguments used by the skeptics are not convincing.

The professor in the listening part totally refutes the reading statement.

 

First, it's true we have no fossil remains of actual bees that date to 200 million years ago. But maybe the reason for that is that bees could not be preserved as fossils at that time. Fossil bees have typically been preserved in fossilized tree resin, a sticky liquid produced by trees.

However, trees with this type of resin were very rare 200 million years ago. Such trees became common much later. So, the fact that we have no bee remains that are 200 million years old doesn't mean that bees did not exist at that time. Maybe bees existed, but since there were almost no trees producing the right kind of resin, the bees could not be preserved.

 

First of all, no fossils of bees at that early time were found not necessarily means that there was no bees at that early time. Because bees may not be preserved for so long. Additionally, to be well-preserved, bees must combine with a certain resin released by a kind of tree. However, at that early time, this kind of tree was not very common or simply didn't exist. So, the chance of bees to become well-preserved fossil is very limited.

 

 

Second, while it's true that bees have a close mutual relationship with flowering plants today, it's quite possible that bees existed before flowering plants appeared on Earth. Those very early bees may have been feeding on non-flowering plants that preceded flowering plants during evolutionary history. The early bees could have fed on non-flowering plants such as ferns, or pine trees. Later, when flowering plants evolved, bees may have adapted to feeding on them, and this new relationship may have remained stable ever since.

Secondly, bees may feed on some non-flowering species at that early time. Even though, at that time, there wasn't any flower plant and modern bees have a pretty close relationship with flowering plants today, ancient bees could simply rely on the species that not flowered, like pine tree. After the flower trees appeared at 125 million years, the bees began to start the close relationship with the flower plant.

 

Third, even though the fossilized chambers lack spiral caps, there's chemical evidence that supports the theory that bees built the chambers. Modern bees protect their nest chambers against water by using a special waterproofing substance that has a distinctive chemical composition. When the fossilized chambers were chemically analyzed, it turned out that they contained the same kind of waterproofing material that's used by modern bees.

 

 

 

 

Thirdly, the chemical constitutions of chambers of the nest are very similar to their modern-day counterparts. It is true that the fossilized chambers lack spiral caps. However, after careful examination, similar water-resistant structures are found in both the modern-day bees' chambers and the fossil ones. Furthermore, the chemical analysis shows that the samples of both modern chambers and fossil ones shared the same combination. This evidence is more decisive to show the chambers were actually made by bees.