A Buzz From The Past

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A long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a creature damn near indistinguishable from, but completely unrelated to, a modern day crocodile. It was perhaps a little larger, but most people would probably not be able to tell the difference if they encountered one in a swamp today. Meanwhile the real ancestors of crocks were also around at the time, but had the body plan, and size, of a greyhound dog. They could also run as fast as, if not faster than, most dogs alive today. What a terrifying thought.

There are many animals alive today that resemble some creatures of the past but, in fact, are not related to them at all. A whale, for example, is more related to hippos than to sharks. Hippos are more related to giraffes than to pigs. Giraffes are more related to pigs than to camels. And so on. The culprit is evolutionary convergence, where animals take on a characteristics due to a common environment over a long period of time.

One creature that was around back then, and is around now, doing the same exact thing as before is the incredible bee. Of course there are many varieties of the bee, but they all have pretty much done the same thing for so long.

When I spotted one during my walk today, I spent a moment admiring the master at work. It was the perfect symbiosis, a give a take relationship that's millions of years old. It very dutifully buzzed from one flower to another extracting nectar and, in the process, being stained by pollen, which it carried from male to female, thereby ensuring the propagation of the species into the future.

The fate of the bee is intricately linked to ours, and many organisms on this planet. If bees became extinct today, we'd be doomed. A lot of our food will die out within one harvest and we'd be left with a global famine, the likes of which the world has never seen, literally. It seems that the bee is as old as the flower itself, as if designed for each other. It's one of those things in nature one looks at and wonders if how this could all be random. It's too beautiful.

We had a bit of a scare a few years ago with the population of bees waning by an alarming amount. I think they've managed to reconstitute because I've seen a hell of a lot of them this year. I've seen more insects this summer generally; ants, ladybugs, wasps, and so on. I've never seen as many ants indoors as I've seen this year. I wake up in the morning and they're literally crawling around on my carpet in their thousands. I also did notice them pouring out of the ground during the heat wave. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Anyway, shoutout to the mighty bee, sustainer of life on earth. May your days be long and forever may you continue to cross pollinate and make honey to sweeten our tongues. Well, until we create micro-drones that take your jobs. 🐝

Peace & Love,

Adé