The Earth Story

Hard Rock Hotel

Back in the early 1980s, Frank Parker, an entomologist, discovered some odd little bees that were nesting in the sandstone in the San Rafael Desert of Utah. These particular bees like to pick at vertical sandstone cliff faces creating tiny holes they use as nesting sites. Parker studied a couple blocks of the sandstone until the bees emerged from the rock. Michael Orr recently began fieldwork studying other bees and had to learn more about Anthophora pueblo species, which have also been found in southwest Colorado and within Death Valley in California. Orr stated, "One of the greatest moments for me of this project was going back and revisiting that site from almost 40 years ago and just walking up and the bees are still there. They're still using this same spot."

The Anthophora pueblo appear to be solitary nesters, though they build them close together in the same rock formation. It has been reported that these bees prefer the sandstone even when softer dirt is available. Gnawing into the sandstone is a difficult process for the insect and older bees are seen with worn-out mandibles. These rocky burrows provide shelter for other insects that don’t have the ability to dig through rock on their own. According to Orr, at least twenty different species have been documented using the holes, including other bee species, spiders and wasps. They are usually found in natural rock formations but some nests have been seen in the ancient Pueblo dwellings made with human hands.

Orr and his colleagues plan to track the species as they live day by day, with hopes of finding answers to whether the bees are entirely solitary or what their cooperative efforts might be. Orr is working on recruiting the local Native American community for involvement in the study. With help from tips, he has now found more than 50 new nesting sites!

--Mi

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Source -- http://bit.ly/2cS0YKz

The first 3d pterosaur eggs Fossil finds in China over the past decades have revolutionised out understanding of flying dinosaurs and early birds, but an exceptional discovery of five intact eggs surrounded by dozens of their adult progenitors is providing a wonderful new glimpse into a little understood corner of deep time. The genus was previously unknown, and flitted through the early Cretaceous air during the reign of their dinosaur cousins some 120 million years ago. Up until these, only four confirmed (and badly crushed) pterosaur eggs had ever been found. Hamipterus tianshanensis turned up in the Turpan-Hami basin in Sinkiang, deep in the deserts of northwestern China, abutting the Tien Shan and Pamir ranges. It is one of the world's bleaker places, just south of the dreaded Taklamakan. The surface of the site has only been scraped in the 9 years since excavations started, and many more interesting specimens are expected to appear. The pterosaurs perished in a savage storm way back in deep time, and were rapidly buried in the resulting sediments. The state of preservation of the skeletons proves that they were not carried far after death. The eggs were soft and bendable with two shells, one hard on the outside, with a membrane within, similar to the eggs of some living snakes. Their parents seem to have buried them on a sandy lake shore, possibly in order to keep them hydrated. The fact that over 40 adults (so far) were buried together in the same storm implies that they hung around in colonies like many modern birds do. The proximity of the gees indicates that they were living near their nesting site, possibly implying parental nurture. Differences in head crests implies that both sexes were present on that long ago stormy day. The adults varied in size from 25cm to 12 metres, pretty hefty in pterosaur terms. Loz Image credit: Maurilio Oliveira http://www.livescience.com/46124-ancient-pterosaur-eggs-found.html http://phys.org/news/2014-06-3d-pterosaur-eggs-parents.html