A fossil bee from Early Cretaceous Burmese amber

The bee fossil record is fragmentary, making it difficult to accurately estimate the antiquity of bee-mediated pollination. Here, we describe a bee fossil Melittosphex burmensis (new species), Melittosphecidae (new family)] from Early Cretaceous Burmese amber (approximately 100 million years before the present). The fossil provides insights into the morphology of the earliest bees and provides a new minimum date for the antiquity of bees and bee-mediated pollination.