Editing Pollination (section)

==Coevolution==
{{Main|Pollination syndrome}}

The first fossil record for [[abiotic]] pollination is from [[fern]]-like plants in the late [[Carboniferous]] period. [[Gymnosperm]]s show evidence for biotic pollination as early as the [[Triassic]] period. Many fossilized pollen grains show characteristics similar to the biotically dispersed pollen today. Furthermore, the gut contents, wing structures, and mouthpart [[Morphology (biology)|morphology]] of fossilized [[Coleoptera|beetles]] and [[Diptera|flies]] suggest that they acted as early pollinators. The association between [[Coleoptera|beetles]] and [[angiosperm]]s during the early [[Cretaceous]] period led to parallel radiations of angiosperms and insects into the late Cretaceous. The evolution of nectaries in late Cretaceous flowers signals the beginning of the [[mutualism (biology)|mutualism]] between [[hymenoptera]]ns and angiosperms.

[[Bee]]s provide a good example of the mutualism that exists between [[hymenoptera]]ns and angiosperms. Flowers provide bees with nectar (an energy source) and pollen (a source of protein). When bees go from flower to flower collecting pollen they are also depositing pollen grains onto the flowers, thus pollinating them. While pollen and nectar, in most cases, are the most notable reward attained from flowers, bees also visit flowers for other resources such as oil, fragrance, resin and even waxes.<ref name="Armbruster ch. 3 Evol. Plant-pollinator relationships">{{cite book| first = W. Scott | last = Armbruster | name-list-style = vanc |author-link1=Evolution and ecological implicationsof "specialized" pollinator rewards|editor1-last=Patiny|editor1-first=Sébastien|title=Evolution of Plant-Pollinator Relationships|date=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=45–67|chapter=3}}</ref> It has been estimated that bees originated with the origin or diversification of [[Flowering plant|angiosperms]].<ref name="Cardinal and Danforth 2013 Bees diversified in the age of eudicots">{{cite journal | vauthors = Cardinal S, Danforth BN | title = Bees diversified in the age of eudicots | journal = Proceedings. Biological Sciences | volume = 280 | issue = 1755 | pages = 20122686 | date = March 2013 | pmid = 23363629 | pmc = 3574388 | doi = 10.1098/rspb.2012.2686 }}</ref> In addition, cases of [[coevolution]] between bee species and flowering plants have been illustrated by specialized adaptations. For example, long legs are selected for in ''Rediviva neliana'', a bee that collects oil from ''Diascia capsularis'', which have long spur lengths that are selected for in order to deposit pollen on the oil-collecting bee, which in turn selects for even longer legs in ''R. neliana'' and again longer spur length in ''D. capsularis'' is selected for, thus, continually driving each other's evolution.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Steiner KE, Whitehead VB | title = Pollinator Adaptation to Oil-Secreting Flowers-Rediviva and Diascia | journal = Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution | volume = 44 | issue = 6 | pages = 1701–1707 | date = September 1990 | pmid = 28564320 | doi = 10.2307/2409348 | jstor = 2409348 }}</ref>