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Marker density for each background sample class (N = 507 samples). Markers with more than 5% change in reflectance detected within a 50 nm interval. These individual data are combined to form the natural background density of the overall simulation. Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2018
New research led by experts at Monash University has used computer simulations to reveal an ancient link between bees and the evolution of flower color.The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society Bsimulated the landscape of the first flowering plants tens of millions of years ago to test their visibility to pollinators such as bees and birds.
Lead author Alan Dorin, facility director at NativeBee+Tech and associate professor in the School of Information Technology, said insects such as bees have developed visual perception long before the first flowers appeared so that they can navigate between rocks, leaves, branches and bark. Flight and positioning. .
“Our results demonstrate that the first flowers evolved brighter colors to distinguish themselves from a dull background and thus attract ancient pollinators,” Doering said.
To test whether bees evolved and view their current environment the same way their ancestors viewed it, the researchers tested bees’ color perception in simulated prehistoric environments.
“Given Australia is a geologically ancient continent, we used chromatographic measurements of the Australian bush, from Cairns all the way to the southern tip of Victoria, to simulate the landscape as the first flowers evolved during the Mesozoic Era, between 252 million and 6.6 billion years ago. Before,” Dolin explained.
Associate Professor Adrian Dyer, a vision scientist and study co-author from the Department of Physiology in the School of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University, said this was the first strong link showing how visual perception guided ancient pollinators and today’s bees. Evolution of flower color.
“We can now see that, like their ancestors, bees have ultraviolet (UV), blue and green photoreceptors, which explains why some modern flowers often evolve common colors such as yellow in their petals as a way for bees to detect color reaction,” Dyer said.
The results of this study will help understand how contemporary plant species are pollinated and advance research into smart agriculture or unlock the potential for further research in the field of efficient crop pollination.
More information:
Alan Dorin et al., Ancient insect vision adapted to fly among rocks and plants supported the diversity of natural flower colors, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2018
Journal information:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
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