Coptoclavidae

Coptoclavidae is an extinct family of aquatic beetles in the suborder Adephaga. The Coptoclavidae lived from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous. Coptoclavidae is a member of the adephagan clade Dytiscoidea, which contains living aquatic beetles, including living predatory diving beetles (Dytiscidae). Coptoclavids are thought to have hunted on the water surface, similar to whirligig beetles (Gyrinidiae), with prey likely including small fish and larval amphibians. Suggested reasons for their extinction to include the rise of teleost fish, or competition with Gyrinidae and Dytiscidae, which possess defensive secretions and sucking channels in the mandibles of larvae, which coptoclavids likely lacked. It has been suggested that the genus Timarchopsis and the subfamily Timarchopsinae are only distantly related to other coptoclavids based on cladistic analysis, with Timarchopsis being more closely related to geadephagans like carabids and trachypachids instead. Another study also suggested similarly for Coptoclavisca and possibly other coptoclaviscines. A 2025 study suggested that Coptoclavidae as a whole, as well as most of the major subfamilies, were likely not monophyletic, but represent a number of separate lineages of dytiscoid beetles.

Coptoclavidae

Kelly, Ross, & Davidson, 2017 · CC BY-SA 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
AdephagaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 131 million years on record.

The record covers at least 244.4 Mya to 113.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 245.19 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 185 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 2 of 185 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 22 of 185 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 32 of 185 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 5 of 185 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 64 of 185 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 59 of 185 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 185 occurrences248–243 Mya — about 2 occurrences238–233 Mya — about 2 occurrences233–228 Mya — about 5 occurrences228–223 Mya — about 1 occurrence223–218 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences218–213 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences213–208 Mya — about 1 occurrence208–203 Mya — about 7 occurrences203–198 Mya — about 14 occurrences198–193 Mya — about 14 occurrences193–188 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences188–183 Mya — about 4 occurrences183–178 Mya — about 3 occurrences178–173 Mya — about 2 occurrences173–168 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences168–163 Mya — about 3 occurrences163–158 Mya — about 8 occurrences158–153 Mya — about 10 occurrences153–148 Mya — about 21 occurrences148–143 Mya — about 27 occurrences143–138 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences138–133 Mya — about 1 occurrence133–128 Mya — about 4 occurrences128–123 Mya — about 11 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 22 occurrences118–113 Mya — about 18 occurrences113–108 Mya — about 1 occurrence108–103 Mya — about 1 occurrence103–98 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences244.4 Mya113.2 Mya248 Mya98 Mya

185 occurrences of Coptoclavidae on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

185 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

60 formations

Solnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.92°WKarabastau — 42.90°N, 70.00°EKarabastau — 42.69°N, 70.41°EKarabastau — 42.95°N, 69.92°ELaiyang — 36.76°N, 120.64°ELaiyang — 36.78°N, 120.67°ELaiyang — 37.05°N, 120.81°ELaiyang — 37.01°N, 120.86°EIchetuy — 50.78°N, 105.53°EIchetuy — 51.27°N, 108.10°EIchetuy — 50.64°N, 105.43°ELilstock — 52.03°N, 2.15°WLilstock — 52.06°N, 2.14°WLilstock — 51.95°N, 2.20°WSharteg — 44.14°N, 95.77°ELa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WCheremkhovskaya — 52.63°N, 103.99°ECheremkhovskaya — 54.17°N, 100.31°EDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°EDaohugou — 41.38°N, 119.25°EDaohugou — 41.38°N, 119.15°EDaohugou — 41.37°N, 119.38°EMogotuin — 44.12°N, 106.92°EHassberge — 50.01°N, 10.67°EPosidonia Shale — 52.36°N, 10.59°EPosidonia Shale — 52.31°N, 10.62°EGurvan-Eren — 46.38°N, 93.95°EJiufotang — 40.97°N, 119.64°EJiufotang — 41.14°N, 119.74°EJiufotang — 42.25°N, 117.79°ETurga — 50.83°N, 116.19°ETurga — 50.36°N, 118.79°EHuangshanjie — 43.13°N, 88.18°EJinju — 35.13°N, 128.10°EJinju — 36.25°N, 128.62°EJinju — 36.25°N, 128.63°EDabeigou — 40.85°N, 117.31°EDabeigou — 41.86°N, 117.54°EByankino — 50.76°N, 115.66°ERöt — 50.13°N, 9.90°ERöt — 50.46°N, 8.78°EDalazi — 42.65°N, 129.61°EGidarinskaya — 51.31°N, 119.61°ELeskovskaya — 51.70°N, 116.93°E

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The named rock units Coptoclavidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Coptoclavidae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Coptoclavidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

3,087 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 138 sites for Coptoclavidae, 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

62 references

Each of the 185 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. 50 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 Coptoclavidae

Credit
Kelly, Ross, & Davidson, 2017
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Coptoclavidae 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 itAdephaga through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ponomarenko 1961