Just like millions of years ago

Scientific evidence shows that the first flowering plants appeared 100 million years ago, while bees appeared only 50 million years later. As now, they used color vision based on photoreceptors sensitive to ultraviolet, blue and green light.

Scientists from Monash University in Australia used a computer model to simulate the visual environment surrounding flying insects 100 million years ago, when the first flowers appeared. The researchers concluded: The first flowers were probably a dull greenish yellow and were initially pollinated by flies.. But when bees began pollinating flowers with their finely tuned visual systems, the flowers took on new, vibrant colors that matched the bees’ visual abilities. It seems that natural selection has made flowers stand out to pollinators.

Birds later became permanent pollinators of flowers, but this occurred only millions of years after insect pollination emerged. Birds can see long waves of red colors that bees cannot. By evolutionary standards, flowers adapted quickly to birds. Plants pollinated by birds shine at different wavelengths than plants pollinated by flowers. The human eye cannot see the parts of the light spectrum that birds and insects can access.

Our research shows that bees are the main driving force behind flower evolution. If we do not protect these insects and their habitats, we will lose the essential and beautiful aspects of life that we all enjoy and need.
– scientists write in their work.

As the world’s climate changes rapidly, we must consider what would happen to ecosystems and our food production without bees. It is extremely important to understand how pollination and reproduction of plants can be altered in the absence of pollinators.