Apis

A honey bee is a eusocial flying insect from the genus Apis of the largest bee family, Apidae. Honey bees are known for their construction of perennial nests within cavities containing hexagonal cells made of secreted wax, their large colony sizes, and their routine regurgitation of digested carbohydrates as surplus food storage in the form of honey, the lattermost of which distinguishes their hives as a prized foraging target of many mellivorous animals including honey badgers, bears and human hunter-gatherers.

Apis

Uncredited · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
honey beePBDB
Sits inside
ApiniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 58 occurrencesOligocene — about 15 of 58 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 40 of 58 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 58 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 58 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 9 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 10 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–10 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences10–9.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.2–8.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.1–6.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.9–5.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.8–4.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences27.3 Mya11.7 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

58 occurrences of Apis on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

58 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

10 formations

Randeck Maar — 48.57°N, 9.53°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ECampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°EMost — 50.57°N, 13.73°EChojabaru — 33.78°N, 129.80°EThermalsinterkalk — 48.41°N, 9.55°EHuazhige — 23.02°N, 104.38°EHaruki — 35.50°N, 134.44°E

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The named rock units Apis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Apis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Apis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,128 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Apis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

21 references

Each of the 58 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 9 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Apis

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Apis mellifera · UNSW:ENTO:5

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itApini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758