Libellula

Libellula is a genus of dragonflies, called chasers or skimmers, in the family Libellulidae. They are distributed throughout the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. Many have showy wing patterns and bright bodies.

Libellula

Tim Bekaert · 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
LibellulinaePBDB
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 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 12 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 10 of 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.7–7.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.4–5.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.6–4.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23.04 Mya7.246 Mya27.8 Mya4.8 Mya

12 occurrences of Libellula 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

12 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

5 formations

Gessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ECypris — 50.17°N, 12.64°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Libellula has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Libellula and its relatives

Miocene

Where Libellula and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

71 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Libellula, 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

9 references

Each of the 12 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 content2

Picture of Libellula

Credit
Tim Bekaert
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
James
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itLibellulinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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