Corduliidae

Corduliidae, also knowns as the emeralds, emerald dragonflies, or green-eyed skimmers, is a family of dragonflies. These dragonflies are usually black or dark brown with areas of metallic green or yellow, and most of them have large, emerald-green eyes. The larvae are black, hairy-looking, and usually semiaquatic. This family include species called "baskettails", "emeralds", "sundragons", "shadowdragons", and "boghaunters". They are not uncommon and are found nearly worldwide, but some individual species are quite rare. Hine's emerald dragonfly, for example, is an endangered species in the United States.

Corduliidae

TekuraDF · CC0 · 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
green-eyed skimmerPBDB
Sits inside
LibelluloideaPBDB
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 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 5.09 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 19 occurrencesEocene — about 7 of 19 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 19 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 19 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 19 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.4–7.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.6–5.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.8–4.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence48.07 Mya7.246 Mya57 Mya4 Mya

19 occurrences of Corduliidae 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

19 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

8 formations

Bouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EFur — 56.90°N, 8.75°EJohn Day — 44.13°N, 120.29°WGreen River — 39.46°N, 108.41°WLatah — 47.61°N, 117.43°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°E

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The named rock units Corduliidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Corduliidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Corduliidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

757 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Corduliidae, 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

13 references

Each of the 19 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. 1 further reference is 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 Corduliidae

Credit
TekuraDF
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itLibelluloidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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