Overview
- Researchers working in Cueva de Mono in the southern Dominican Republic report bee brood cells preserved inside tooth sockets, vertebrae and a sloth tooth cavity.
- Generations of barn owls left dense accumulations of prey bones in the cave, creating hollow cavities that later served as ready‑made nest sites for burrowing bees.
- CT imaging documents smooth, waterproof linings characteristic of solitary bees and shows repeated reuse, including six stacked chambers inside a single hutia tooth socket.
- The team hypothesizes that karst terrain with little stable topsoil steered bees to exploit sheltered cave sediments and existing bone hollows rather than dig surface burrows.
- No bee bodies were preserved in the humid cave environment, so the maker species and precise ages remain uncertain within the late Quaternary range.