scientist haveidentifiedtwo incredibly well preserved nests containing equally well preserved pupae of the leafcutter bee from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles . The result , which have been published in the journalPLOS ONE , are helping to divulge information on the mood and environs in this area around40,000 years ago .

Rancho La Brea , or the La Brea Tar Pits , is famous for the large number of diverse fossil that have been pulled out of these oozing pools . From brute such as cavalry sword - toothed cats and mammoths to extinct Ice Age plants , some 3.5 million specimens representing over 600 dissimilar species of industrial plant and animals have been collected here . Less attention has been paid to its plethora of insects , but these can in fact process as worthful environmental indicators since they are fairly restricted by climate and have short life story cycle .

Hoping to instruct more about the local habitat and clime of Rancho La Brea towards the end of the last Ice Age , scientists investigated two fogey bee nest cells collected here . They used micro - CT scan to examine the cells , which led them to the discovery that they contained exceptionally well preserved pupae as well . Further investigation of the characteristic of both the bees and the nest cells led the scientist to the conclusion that they were likely leafcutter bees ( M. gentilis ) , which still exist today .

Leafcutter bee use pieces of leaves when building nests , which they normally form under the barque of dead trees or in burrows either dug by the bees or other animate being . The females use sharp mandibles to cut the leaves which are then used to line nest dental caries .

The scientists were able to expend the leafcutter specimen to shed illumination on the environment in southern California during the Late Pleistocene . They suggest that the environment the bees were live in was probably modest , and although they could n’t officially name the material used to build the nest they found that it was more probable to be from woody Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and shrubs as oppose to herbaceous plant industrial plant .

agree toDr . John Harrisof the Page Museum , the scientist are hoping to apply entropy from dodo such as these to understand how animals responded to the climatic change experienced at the remnant of the Ice Age . “ It affords an evolutionary linear perspective to ongoing climate modification , ” he added .