New bee species found thriving in former Arctic nuke site - study

A species of bee has been discovered that is miraculously capable of surviving in the high arctic region where the Soviet Union once tested nuclear weapons for decades, according to a new study.

The ‘Bombus glacialis’ species lives on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, which the Soviet Union closed off decades ago to carry out scores of nuclear tests. While previously considered to be a subspecies of the B. polaris - one of the only other arctic bee types in the world - a recent study published in Polar Biology confirmed B. glacialis to be its own species.

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Specimens of the bees were often collected by explorers who visited the island in the early 20th century, and are now preserved in natural history museums. Their existence, however, could be evidence of something much bigger.

The presence of B. glacialis is “a possible sign of the unexpected Lost World in the High Arctic,” according to Ivan Bolotov, the lead investigator of the research team that identified the species through genetic analysis.=read more