Calosoma

Calosoma is a genus of large ground beetles that occur primarily throughout the Northern Hemisphere, and are referred to as caterpillar hunters or caterpillar searchers. Many of the 167 species are largely or entirely black, but some have bright metallic coloration. They produce a foul-smelling spray from glands near the tip of the abdomen. They are recognizable due to their large thorax, which is almost the width of their abdomen and much wider than their head.

Calosoma

Emil Hochdanz · Public Domain · 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
CarabiniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 210 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 14 ka.

Eocene — about 6 of 42 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 13 of 42 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 18 of 42 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 42 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 42 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 8 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.7–6.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.1–3.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.8–2.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.6–1.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.3–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence33.9 Mya210 ka38.5 Mya0 Mya

42 occurrences of Calosoma 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

42 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

9 formations

Upper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ECampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ELatah — 47.69°N, 117.47°WBushi — 35.84°N, 139.35°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WGeumgwangdong — 35.96°N, 129.45°E

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The named rock units Calosoma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Calosoma and its relatives

Miocene

Where Calosoma and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,406 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Calosoma, 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

23 references

Each of the 42 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. 11 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 Calosoma

Credit
Emil Hochdanz
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Calosoma was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itCarabini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Weber 1801