Brachycera

The Brachycera are a suborder of the order Diptera. It is a major suborder consisting of around 120 families. Their most distinguishing characteristic is reduced antenna segmentation.

Brachycera

Alvesgaspar · 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
Sits inside
NeodipteraPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 387 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 390.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Devonian — about 1 of 2130 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 2130 occurrencesPermian — about 0 of 2130 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 2130 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 3 of 2130 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 2 of 2130 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 17 of 2130 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 29 of 2130 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 144 of 2130 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 239 of 2130 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 223 of 2130 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 2130 occurrencesEocene — about 1006 of 2130 occurrencesOligocene — about 157 of 2130 occurrencesMiocene — about 228 of 2130 occurrencesPliocene — about 11 of 2130 occurrencesPleistocene — about 21 of 2130 occurrences398–385 Mya — about 1 occurrence252–239 Mya — about 2 occurrences239–226 Mya — about 1 occurrence226–212 Mya — about 1 occurrence212–199 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences199–186 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences186–173 Mya — about 16 occurrences173–159 Mya — about 45 occurrences159–146 Mya — about 122 occurrences146–133 Mya — about 18 occurrences133–119 Mya — about 103 occurrences119–106 Mya — about 103 occurrences106–93 Mya — about 170 occurrences93–80 Mya — about 47 occurrences80–66 Mya — about 26 occurrences66–53 Mya — about 33 occurrences53–40 Mya — about 128 occurrences40–27 Mya — about 914 occurrences27–13 Mya — about 276 occurrences13–0 Mya — about 122 occurrences387.95 Mya11.7 ka398 Mya0 Mya

2,130 occurrences of Brachycera 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

2,130 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

104 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WKarabastau — 42.90°N, 70.00°EKarabastau — 42.69°N, 70.41°EKarabastau — 42.95°N, 69.92°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.59°N, 7.24°EDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°EGreen River — 39.45°N, 108.39°WGreen River — 39.98°N, 109.11°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 108.00°WGreen River — 38.90°N, 109.20°WGreen River — 39.94°N, 108.20°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WGreen River — 39.23°N, 108.22°WGreen River — 39.63°N, 108.15°WGreen River — 39.79°N, 109.07°WGreen River — 40.01°N, 108.11°WGreen River — 39.64°N, 108.76°WGreen River — 39.51°N, 108.03°WZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°EYixian — 41.15°N, 117.96°EYixian — 41.03°N, 118.92°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EYixian — 41.54°N, 118.92°EYixian — 41.75°N, 120.80°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ERaritan — 40.47°N, 74.32°WRaritan — 40.43°N, 74.33°WMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°WLaiyang — 36.78°N, 120.67°ELaiyang — 36.76°N, 120.64°ECrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WBouldnor — 50.75°N, 1.35°WKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°EKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EDzun-Bain — 45.45°N, 99.13°EGurvan-Eren — 46.38°N, 93.95°EGurvan-Eren — 48.07°N, 91.65°EOla — 60.17°N, 150.49°EEscucha — 40.80°N, 0.81°WEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WLa Pedrera de Rúbies — 42.02°N, 0.89°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EAustralian Creek — 52.97°N, 122.50°WCampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Brachycera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 80 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,207 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brachycera and its relatives

Eocene

Where Brachycera and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

7,801 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 499 sites for Brachycera, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

574 references

Each of the 2,130 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. 562 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 Brachycera

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

No 3D scan of Brachycera 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

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zetterstedt 1842