Recent analysis of ancient leafcutter bee fossils provided researchers a glimpse into what the environment was like during the Ice Age.
The fossils were unearthed from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Southern California, according to ScienceRecorder.com.
The area where the fossils were found is known to be the home of some of the world's richest Ice Age fossil deposits. Other fossils discovered in the same location includes saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths.
Lead study author Ann Holden, an entomologist at the Natural History of Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), and her colleagues examined the physical features of bee pupae and the nest cell architecture.
The researchers were able to explain that the Ice Age bees belonged to Megachile gentilis, which is a species that still exists today, usually found in northern Mexico and southeastern U.S.
"Based on what we know about them today and the identification of fossilized leaf fragments, we know that their habitat at the Tar Pits was at a much lower elevation during the Ice Age," said Holden, according to The Christian Science Monitor.
Their research was published recently in the journal PLOS One.
Leafcutter bees mainly lived in a moist environment during the Late Pleistocene age, at much lower elevations than most bees, according to ScienceRecorder.com.
Unlike other bees, leafcutters' cylindrical nest cells composed mainly of leaves and occasionally flower petals. Nest cells were placed underground, where the mother bee would plant her babies near an asphalt pipe, according to PLOS One.
Studies show that the pupae became preserved in an asphalt-rich solution when oil soaked into the sediment surrounding the pipe, providing a clue as to what the climate and environment was like their during the Ice Age.
"Understanding climate change in the past will help us understand current climate and environment change," Holden said.
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