Anax imperator

The emperor dragonfly or blue emperor is a large species of hawker dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae. It is the largest dragonfly in most of Europe, including the United Kingdom, although exceeded in some areas by other species.

Anax imperator

Quartl · CC BY 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
emperor dragonflyPBDB
Sits inside
AnaxPBDB
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 most 2 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 7.246 Mya and 5.333 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Miocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 1 occurrence7.3–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.75 Mya4.83 Mya

1 occurrence of Anax imperator on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

1 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

1 formation

Gessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Anax imperator has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Anax imperator and its relatives

Miocene

Where Anax imperator and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

19 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Anax imperator, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Anax imperator

Credit
Quartl
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anax imperator was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itAnax through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leach 1815