Iridomyrmex

Iridomyrmex is a genus of ants called rainbow ants first described by Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr in 1862. He placed the genus in the subfamily Dolichoderinae of the family Formicidae. It has 79 described species and five fossil species. Most of these ants are native to Australia; others are found in Asia and Oceania, and they have been introduced to Brazil, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates. Fossil species are known from China, France, and the United States.

Iridomyrmex

fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Sigma 150mm f/2.8 · 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
LeptomyrmeciniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 32 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 7 of 10 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–4.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.8–1.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37.71 Mya5.333 Mya41.9 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Iridomyrmex 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

10 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

4 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WCockfield — 34.35°N, 92.78°WSalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°E

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The named rock units Iridomyrmex has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Iridomyrmex and its relatives

Eocene

Where Iridomyrmex and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

514 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Iridomyrmex, 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

5 references

Each of the 10 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. 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 Iridomyrmex

Credit
fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Sigma 150mm f/2.8
Licence
GFDL 1.2
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Iridomyrmex 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 itLeptomyrmecini through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mayr 1862