Social bees have kept their gut microbes for 80 million years
Wednesday, March 29, 2017 - 13:12
in Biology & Nature
About 80 million years ago, a group of bees began exhibiting social behavior, which includes raising young together, sharing food resources and defending their colony. Today, their descendants—honey bees, stingless bees and bumble bees—carry stowaways from their ancient ancestors: five species of gut bacteria that have evolved along with the host bees.