Scientists believe that a 100 million-year-old fossilised insect discovered in Burma is the “missing link” between bees and wasps, containing as it does features from both.

And a skull found in Argentina has forced researchers to upgrade their estimates of the agility of phorusrhacids, giant birds that roamed the earth millions of years ago, because their original figures assumed that they had smaller limbs.

The skull measuring 28in (60cm) was found in Comallo. According to the journal Nature, it is about 15 million years old and virtually complete. The bird’s viciously hooked beak would have been capable of inflicting a devastating blow to prey as large as cows. A creature the size of a dog might have been swallowed whole.

Researchers from the Dinosaur Institute in Los Angeles said: “The broad range of sizes and inferred agility of phorusrhacids has been traditionally subdivided into groups of increased corpulence and proportionately reduced agility.

“On the basis of length measurements of the skull, [this bird] is estimated to be 10 per cent larger than the largest phorusrhacids previously known. This bird may have been substantially swifter.”

Meanwhile, the bee, which has been preserved in amber, is 100 million-year-old, making it 35 to 45 million years older than any previous example and is a “missing link” between bees and wasps.

Its discovery was announced in the journal Science, at the same time as the genome sequence, or genetic blueprint, of the honeybee was published.

Professor George Poinar, of Oregon State University, said: “This is the oldest known bee we’ve ever been able to identify, and it shares some of the features of wasps.

“Overall, it’s more bee than wasp, and gives us a pretty good idea of when these two types of insects were separating on their evolutionary paths.”

It was found in a mine in Burma and may help to explain the evolutionary development of flowers.

The bee is only 0.12 inches (3mm) long, a size consistent with that of the earliest flowers. Mr Poinar said: “Flowering plants are very important in the evolution of life. They can reproduce more quickly, develop greater genetic diversity, spread more easily and move into new habitats.

“But prior to the evolution of bees they didn’t have any strong mechanism to spread their pollen, only a few flies and beetles that didn’t go very far.”

The DNA code of the western honeybee, Apis mellifera, was published in Nature, with associated papers in forthcoming issues of Science and Genome Research.

It is the fourth insect to have its genetic blueprint unravelled, after the fruit fly, mosquito and silk moth.

Its genome sequence reveals striking links with mammals and humans, scientists said. Honey bees have an internal “biological clock” which is more like those of mammals than of flies.

The clock governs many activities, including time sensing, navigation, labour division, and a “dance language” which the insects use to communicate information about food sources.

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