Bryan Danforth, a Cornell associate professor of entomology, and George Poinar of Oregon State University discovered a 100-million-year old bee trapped in amber from a mine in northern Myanmar (Burma).  Such discovery may be the oldest bee ever found.

According to Danforth, this fossil drives back the bee fossil record to about 35 million years.  Such discovery now advocates a new hypothesis in the evolution of such insect.  Scientists have long believed that bees made their first appearance about 120 million years ago.  However, earlier records of bee fossils only dated back to about 65 million years.

The fossil, as discovered by Danforth and Poinar, offers a strong indication of a more distant ancestry. The reality that the bee fossil also possesses some wasp traits indicates an evolutionary relationship between wasps and bees.

In a related study, as printed in an earlier issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Danforth and several colleagues from other institutions studied the structures of early bees in combination with bee DNA.  Such related study is regarded as the largest molecular and morphological study on bee family-level phylogeny to date.  Such previous study was able to map out the evolutionary development of bees and diversification of a species.  Their objective included the examination of the early evolutionary pattern of bees and the correlation of bee evolution to the evolution of flowering plants.

Before the discovery of Danforth and Poinar, many researchers believed the most primitive bees originated from the family Colletidae.  This suggests that bees have originally come from the Southern Hemisphere that may either be South America or Australia.  Because of the recent finding, it is suggested that the most primitive branches of the bee’s evolutionary tree may have originated from the family Melittidae.  As such, bees may have an originated from Africa and are almost as old as the earliest flowering plants.

A good way of viewing fossil specimens, such as bee fossils, is with the use of a stereo binocular microscope.  Structures of fossilized bees are made evident because of the clear magnification and transmitted light of this type of microscope.  Not only that, a stereo binocular microscope provides the observer a three dimensional view of the subject placed under it which is unlike the two-dimensional image given by a compound microscope.  Images seem to come alive, permitting the scientist to better observe and appreciate the fossil because of the erect and upright image that a stereo binocular microscope provides.

In observing a fossil sample with the use of a stereo binocular microscope, the fossil specimen must first be cut into thin segments.  The specimen must be fine because a stereo binocular microscope operates with incident light.  As such, the fossil sample has to be thin enough in order to permit the light to pass.

Stereo binocular microscope is not only limited in the study of fossils.  In fact, this type of microscope has a wide range of applications.  A stereo binocular microscope may be employed in examinations of natural specimens, such as plants, minerals, and insects, to name a few.  Also, a stereo binocular microscope may be used in technical applications.  Coins, textiles, and electronic components may be placed under a stereo binocular microscope for observation.  Aside from mentioned applications, dissection and precision assembly can be achieved through the employment of a stereo binocular microscope.  A biologist or a circuit board technician can respectively use a stereo binocular microscope for dissection or repair.