Leptothorax

Leptothorax is a genus of small ants with mainly Holarctic distributions. The genus is notable for its widespread social parasitism, i.e. they are dependent on the help of workers from other ant species during a part or the whole of their life cycles.

Leptothorax

April Nobile · CC BY 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
CrematogastriniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 4 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence48.07 Mya129 ka57 Mya0 Mya

4 occurrences of Leptothorax on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

4 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

3 formations

Imuruk Volcanics — 65.88°N, 163.13°WKap København — 82.45°N, 24.10°WQuadra Sand — 49.29°N, 122.88°W

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The named rock units Leptothorax 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.

Leptothorax and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Leptothorax and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

160 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Leptothorax, 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

4 references

Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Leptothorax

Credit
April Nobile
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Leptothorax Leptothorax interruptus · ETHZ:ENT:0575956

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 itCrematogastrini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mayr 1855