Aeschnidiidae

Aeschnidiidae is an extinct family of Anisopteran dragonfly. Aeschnidiids were widespread and could be found on nearly every continent on Earth. They were most diverse during the Early Cretaceous before completely disappearing at the end of the Maastrichtian. Many members of this family were large dragonflies, with wing lengths ranging from 35 to 45 mm.

Aeschnidiidae

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
small darnerPBDB
Sits inside
NeoanisopteraPBDB
Diet
carnivore, insectivorePBDB, for Odonata
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Odonata
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Odonata
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Odonata
Environment
freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Odonata

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 26 of 108 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 78 of 108 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 108 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 108 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 108 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 108 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 108 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 2 occurrences150–146 Mya — about 20 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 4 occurrences141–137 Mya — about 14 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–128 Mya — about 2 occurrences128–123 Mya — about 16 occurrences123–119 Mya — about 21 occurrences119–114 Mya — about 18 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 5 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences106–101 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences101–97 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–70 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences70–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences149.2 Mya27.3 Mya155 Mya20 Mya

108 occurrences of Aeschnidiidae on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

108 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

26 formations

Solnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.19°ESolnhofen — 48.89°N, 10.96°EYixian — 41.19°N, 119.21°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EYixian — 41.70°N, 120.50°EYixian — 41.53°N, 121.10°EYixian — 41.95°N, 118.89°EYixian — 41.75°N, 120.80°EWeald Clay — 51.13°N, 0.35°WWeald Clay — 51.10°N, 0.45°WWeald Clay — 52.72°N, 1.44°WCrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WDurlston — 50.60°N, 1.95°WLa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WLa Huérguina — 40.13°N, 2.01°WChijinbao — 39.97°N, 97.80°EChijinbao — 40.10°N, 97.39°EChijinbao — 39.97°N, 97.66°ELulworth — 51.45°N, 0.96°WLulworth — 51.08°N, 1.98°WGurvan-Eren — 48.07°N, 91.65°EGurvan-Eren — 46.99°N, 95.46°ELaiyang — 36.78°N, 120.67°ENusplingen Limestone — 48.13°N, 8.88°EWalumbilla — 20.76°S, 143.68°EShahai — 41.56°N, 120.02°EShahai — 41.25°N, 120.03°EAbu Ballas — 24.18°N, 27.33°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°Ela Pedrera de Rubies — 42.01°N, 0.96°EKimmeridge Clay — 50.62°N, 2.12°WToolebuc — 20.54°S, 143.98°EQingshila — 40.88°N, 114.69°EHangjiahu — 30.92°N, 120.05°ELa Pedrera de Rúbies — 42.02°N, 0.89°EHuliugou — 41.35°N, 107.33°EPaja — 5.63°N, 73.58°WFox Hills — 45.28°N, 101.01°W

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The named rock units Aeschnidiidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aeschnidiidae and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Aeschnidiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,307 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 78 sites for Aeschnidiidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

43 references

Each of the 108 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 31 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Aeschnidiidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aeschnidiidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNeoanisoptera through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Handlirsch 1906)