Insecta

Searched as Insecta indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Insecta as the accepted name.

Insects are invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have an exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and a pair of antennae. Insects are the most diverse group of animals, with more than a million described species; they represent more than half of all animal species.

Insecta

Chiswick Chap · 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
Also called
insectPBDB
Sits inside
CercofilataPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 316 million years on record.

The record covers at least 316.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 318.7 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Carboniferous — about 13 of 77 occurrencesPermian — about 7 of 77 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 77 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 77 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 7 of 77 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 5 of 77 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 77 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 9 of 77 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 7 of 77 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 8 of 77 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 77 occurrencesEocene — about 5 of 77 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 77 occurrencesMiocene — about 5 of 77 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 77 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 77 occurrences325–314 Mya — about 1 occurrence314–303 Mya — about 6 occurrences303–293 Mya — about 9 occurrences293–282 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences282–271 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences271–260 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences260–249 Mya — about 2 occurrences249–238 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences238–228 Mya — about 4 occurrences228–217 Mya — about 1 occurrence217–206 Mya — about 1 occurrence206–195 Mya — about 3 occurrences195–184 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences184–173 Mya — about 1 occurrence173–163 Mya — about 1 occurrence163–152 Mya — about 3 occurrences152–141 Mya — about 5 occurrences130–119 Mya — about 5 occurrences119–108 Mya — about 1 occurrence108–98 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences98–87 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences87–76 Mya — about 4 occurrences76–65 Mya — about 3 occurrences65–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences316.9 Mya129 ka325 Mya0 Mya

77 occurrences of Insecta on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

77 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

47 formations

Wild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WShar Teg — 44.12°N, 95.82°EYixian — 41.57°N, 119.33°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.90°EYixian — 41.63°N, 121.65°EMizozono — 31.98°N, 130.74°EMorrison — 44.54°N, 107.85°WMorrison — 41.91°N, 105.97°WSolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ECarbondale — 41.34°N, 88.39°WCarbondale — 41.21°N, 88.21°WMoenave — 37.09°N, 113.56°WVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.21°EFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.54°WRenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WCreechbarrow Limestone — 50.65°N, 2.12°WOsborne Beds — 50.67°N, 1.51°WKoum — 8.35°N, 14.79°ETwo Medicine — 47.82°N, 112.66°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WJiufotang — 41.53°N, 121.25°ENorthumberland — 49.55°N, 124.70°WJingchuan — 38.92°N, 107.26°ETurners Falls — 42.61°N, 72.53°WBakkar — 45.00°N, 99.00°ELithofacies Association II — 35.87°N, 78.90°WTranquille — 50.13°N, 120.51°Winterbasaltic plant-beds — 56.34°N, 6.23°W

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The named rock units Insecta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 23 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Insecta and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Insecta and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

6,606 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 533 sites for Insecta, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

61 references

Each of the 77 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. 49 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 Insecta

Credit
Chiswick Chap
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Insecta 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 itCercofilata through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

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