Aphodius

Aphodius is a genus of beetles in the family Scarabaeidae. In most species both the adults and larvae are coprophagous although some species have herbivorous or saprophagous larvae. Aphodius species typically dominate dung beetle communities in north temperate ecosystems. Most species are functionally classified as endocoprids, also known as dwellers, because the larvae live and feed within the dung pat itself.

Aphodius

Andrew Sebastian Depicted place: Wasaga Beach, Wasaga Beach, CA ( 44°28′13″N 80°06′11″W / 44.4703866667°N 80.1031805°… · 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
AphodiinaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 113 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 129 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 129 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 129 occurrencesEocene — about 20 of 129 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 129 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 5 of 129 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 129 occurrencesPleistocene — about 97 of 129 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences120–116 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences116–111 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 20 occurrences33–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–8.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.3–4.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.1–0 Mya — about 98 occurrences113.2 Mya129 ka124 Mya0 Mya

129 occurrences of Aphodius on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

129 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

18 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WHighbury Silts and Sands — 51.56°N, 0.06°WKeremesit — 69.50°N, 158.50°EKeremesit — 69.17°N, 158.12°ETitusville Till — 41.62°N, 79.64°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EEdoma — 69.50°N, 158.50°EMizozono — 31.98°N, 130.74°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°EMasaragawa — 38.25°N, 138.41°EBushi — 35.84°N, 139.35°EKap København — 82.47°N, 23.66°WOler — 69.50°N, 158.50°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°ETsumori — 32.79°N, 130.86°EHirabaru — 33.40°N, 131.64°ENogami — 33.21°N, 131.15°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°W

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The named rock units Aphodius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 67 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aphodius and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aphodius and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,697 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 93 sites for Aphodius, 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

37 references

Each of the 129 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. 25 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 Aphodius

Credit
Andrew Sebastian Depicted place: Wasaga Beach, Wasaga Beach, CA ( 44°28′13″N 80°06′11″W / 44.4703866667°N 80.1031805°…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itAphodiina through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hellwig 1798