Culex

Culex or typical mosquitoes are a genus of mosquitoes, several species of which serve as vectors of one or more important diseases of birds, humans, and other animals. The diseases they vector include arbovirus infections such as West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis, or St. Louis encephalitis, but also filariasis and avian malaria. They occur worldwide except for the extreme northern parts of the temperate zone, and are the most common form of mosquito encountered in some major U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles.

Culex

US Centers for Disease Control · 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
CuliciniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 18 occurrencesEocene — about 11 of 18 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 18 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 18 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 18 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 18 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–30 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

18 occurrences of Culex on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

18 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

7 formations

Bouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WGreen River — 39.60°N, 108.40°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WSalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°ELa Toca — 19.55°N, 70.61°WRita Blanca — 35.71°N, 102.45°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°W

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The named rock units Culex has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Culex and its relatives

Eocene

Where Culex and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,325 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Culex, 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

16 references

Each of the 18 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. 4 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 Culex

Credit
US Centers for Disease Control
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Culex 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 itCulicini through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758