Camponotus

Carpenter ants are a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae found nearly worldwide except in Antarctica and a few islands. This genus is the most species-rich genus of ants in terms of described species, comprising over 1,500 described species as of 2025. Although they are commonly referred to as carpenter ants, only a few members, mostly in the subgenera Camponotus and Myrmentoma, nest in wood.

Camponotus

Muhammad Mahdi Karim · GFDL 1.2 · 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
CamponotiniPBDB
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 1 of 33 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 33 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 16 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 33 occurrencesPleistocene — about 9 of 33 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 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences41.03 Mya11.7 ka49 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Camponotus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

33 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

10 formations

Kap København — 82.47°N, 23.66°WKap København — 82.45°N, 24.10°WKap København — 82.39°N, 24.18°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EMiyajima — 36.98°N, 139.82°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EImuruk Volcanics — 65.88°N, 163.13°WLatah — 46.53°N, 116.79°WMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°WHachiya — 35.48°N, 137.11°EKizi — 45.48°N, 137.21°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Camponotus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Camponotus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Camponotus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,265 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Camponotus, 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

20 references

Each of the 33 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. 8 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 content3

Picture of Camponotus

Credit
Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Licence
GFDL 1.2
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Camponotus etiolatus · UTEP:Ento:UTEP:Ento:17097

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itCamponotini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mayr 1861