Calopterygidae

Calopterygidae is a family of damselflies, in the superfamily Calopterygoidea. Members of Calopterygidae are commonly known as broad-winged damselflies, demoiselles, or jewelwings. These rather large damselflies have wingspans of 50–80 mm, are often metallic-coloured, and can be differentiated from other damselflies by the broader connection between the wings and the body, as opposed to the abrupt narrowing seen in other damselfly families. The family contains some 150 species.

Calopterygidae

Michael Apel · CC BY 2.5 · 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
broad-winged damselflyPBDB
Sits inside
CalopterygoideaPBDB
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 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesEocene — about 4 of 13 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 13 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 13 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–31 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.1–5.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.2–3.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.4–1.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48.07 Mya3.6 Mya57 Mya2 Mya

13 occurrences of Calopterygidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

13 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

5 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EOya — 32.63°N, 130.17°EGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°ENingming — 22.14°N, 107.03°E

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The named rock units Calopterygidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Calopterygidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Calopterygidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

516 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Calopterygidae, 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

12 references

Each of the 13 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. 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 Calopterygidae

Credit
Michael Apel
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Calopterygidae 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 itCalopterygoidea through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Selys-Longchamps 1850