Aphaenogaster

Aphaenogaster is a genus of myrmicine ants in the tribe Stenammini. About 200 species have been described, including 18 fossil species. They occur worldwide except in South America south of Colombia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Antarctica.

Aphaenogaster

Uncredited · CC BY 4.0 · 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
Sits inside
StenamminiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 29 of 37 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 37 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 5 of 37 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 37 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 37 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 11 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 13 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence41.03 Mya11.7 ka49 Mya0 Mya

37 occurrences of Aphaenogaster on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

37 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

4 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WGrubstake — 63.86°N, 148.85°WHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°ENaibuchi — 47.44°N, 142.76°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Aphaenogaster has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aphaenogaster and its relatives

Eocene

Where Aphaenogaster and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,123 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Aphaenogaster, 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

15 references

Each of the 37 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. 3 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 content2

Picture of Aphaenogaster

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itStenammini through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mayr 1853