Oldest angiosperm-pollinating insect

Taxonomically, angiosperms are the flowering plants, and the oldest recorded specimens of angiosperm-pollinating insects have been recorded in Myanmar amber that dates back c. 99–100 million years to the mid-Cretaceous period. One is Angimordella burmitina, a newly described genus and species of tumbling flower beetle belonging to the Mordellidae family. The beetle possessed pollen-feeding mouthparts, and many tricolpate angiosperm pollen grains were attached to its body. This discovery was published in a PNAS research paper by Dr David Dilcher from Indiana University, USA, and three co-workers in November 2019. Two months later, reports emerged of a new species of bee, named Discoscapa apicula by Dr George Poinar from Oregon State University, USA, that was found embedded in a lump of c. 100-million-year-old amber from Myanmar. Numerous pollen grains attached to the bee showed that it had recently visited one or more flowers, making it the earliest known example of a pollinating bee. This species was formally described in the scientific journal Palaeodiversity on 29 January 2020.

Also known as eudicots or non-magnoliid dicots, tricolpates are a taxonomic group (clade) of flowering plants that include such familiar types as buttercups, dandelions, forget-me-nots, cabbages, apples, maples, and sunflowers. The name "tricolpate" is derived from their pollen grains, each of which characteristically bears three furrows or grooves.

Although pollination of gymnosperms (conifers and relatives) by insects from this same prehistoric time period has previously been documented, the tumbling flower beetle was the first confirmed evidence for mid-Cretaceous pollination of angiosperms by insects.