Lestidae

Lestidae is a family of cosmopolitan, medium-sized to large, slender damselflies, known commonly as the spreadwings, spread-winged damselflies, or reedlings.

Lestidae

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
Also called
spread-winged damselflyPBDB
Sits inside
LestoideaPBDB
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 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 51 occurrencesPaleocene — about 3 of 51 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 5 of 51 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 19 of 51 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 21 of 51 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 51 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 51 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 1 occurrence61–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 4 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–9.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.4–7.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.2–5.0 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.7–516 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences61.66 Mya2.58 Mya67 Mya516 ka

51 occurrences of Lestidae 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

51 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

13 formations

Campagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°EMasaragawa — 38.25°N, 138.41°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ECalcàries de Tàrrega — 41.64°N, 1.32°EBembridge Marls — 50.74°N, 1.36°WWanghudun — 30.76°N, 116.55°ENongshan — 25.29°N, 114.50°EWiesbaden — 49.97°N, 8.30°E

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The named rock units Lestidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lestidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Lestidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,330 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Lestidae, 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

27 references

Each of the 51 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. 15 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 Lestidae

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 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 itLestoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Calvert 1901