A currently published study has found out that global warming, together with evolution, is reshaping the American bumblebees' bodies.

A report by The Times Gazette said that the study published on Sep. 24, Thursday, showed that the tongues on two of the Rocky Mountain species of bees are now approximately 25 percent shorter than they were 40 years ago. The bees have evolved that way because of climate change that altered wildflowers they feed from.

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One of the two species---said Nicole Miller-Struttman, the lead author who is affiliated to the State University of New York at Old Westbury---had a tongue that was half the body size of the bee's body, meaning that it is equal to the tongue of a human reaching down its waist. But because the buffet of wildflowers it is feeding from changed, so does the bee's tongue so that it would not be required to use more energy, which also allows it to feed from a wide variety of flowers.

Other animals and plants, however, have been tracked by researchers and biologists to study on how global warming affect and alter their development, migration, timing, and behavior so this study has set it apart from that. It is because this study showed physical changes that can be seen on the bee.

Adaptive evolution, which it is called, showed scientists that the said changes in a bee in which climate change affected the organism's evolution.

The yellow-belted bumblebees' group of species was dominant on Rocky Mountains, and it was isolated and high at over 10,000 feet that pesticides and pathogens that are usually blamed for the declining bee populations could barely reach but it is only 20% of them that is left due to others' non-evolution. It also did not pose any problem to the research group. Moreover, the scientists found out that the average temperature increased to 3.6 degrees over 50 years.

In relation to this, Fox News stated that the study was praised as it was well conducted and that it was significant for the ecosystem of mountain flowers.

In addition, the silver lining is that the bees evolve very quickly and thus story is not rosy for the flowers due to other bees would bite and make a hole in the flower's side and hence unable them to spread their seeds. 

 

Tagswildflowers, bumblebees, global warming, rocky mountains, adaptive evolution