Palaeomacropis eocenicus

Palaeomacropis eocenicus lived during the Early Eocene epoch, approximately 50 million years ago. The species is known exclusively from fossil specimens preserved in Oise amber deposits found in northern France, which date to this warm period when subtropical-like climatic conditions extended far into northern Europe.

Palaeomacropis eocenicus belongs to the family Melittidae, a small family of bees that includes some of the most evolutionarily ancient bee lineages still surviving today. The species was formally described in 2007 based on fossil evidence, and its classification within Melittidae provides insight into the early evolutionary history of bees during a critical period of angiosperm diversification.

The fossils were found in the Oise amber deposits of northern France. Oise amber is a recognized paleontological source of Eocene-age insect fossils, formed from tree resin that trapped insects and other small organisms roughly 50 million years ago, preserving them in fine three-dimensional detail within the hardened amber.

As a member of the family Melittidae from the Early Eocene, Palaeomacropis eocenicus provides important evidence about bee diversity during a period when flowering plants were rapidly diversifying. The fossil helps scientists understand the deep evolutionary history of bee-flower relationships and the biogeography of ancient pollinators in Europe during one of the warmest periods of the Cenozoic era.