The bees were preserved well enough for researchers to make out small features, like their legs and antennae.
Thousands of years ago, a group of adolescent bees became trapped in cocoons inside their nest and left behind a remarkably preserved record of their"mummified" remains.
"This new fossil site is a remarkable opportunity to better understand bee nesting behaviors and their evolution, because we can be face to face with the users of the nests," lead study author Carlos Neto de Carvalho, a paleontologist at the Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark in Portugal, told Live Science in an email.The bees were found in rocks that formed about 3,000 years ago near the Atlantic coast of Portugal.
These bees lay their eggs in in underground nests, where, over time, their spawn spin cocoons as they develop and grow into adult bees before emerging aboveground. But these individuals were killed before they reached that stage — and killed in a way that might have led to their exceptional preservation.
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