Libelluloidea

Libelluloidea is the most species-rich superfamily of dragonflies, comprising 13 families.

Libelluloidea

J.M.Garg · CC BY 3.0 · 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
CavilabiataPBDB
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 120 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 129 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 127 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 127 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 3 of 127 occurrencesEocene — about 13 of 127 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 27 of 127 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 76 of 127 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 127 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 127 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence94–90 Mya — about 1 occurrence64–60 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 6 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 4 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 10 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 19 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 12 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 15 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 13 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 32 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences121.4 Mya774 ka128 Mya0 Mya

127 occurrences of Libelluloidea 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

127 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

30 formations

Gessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ECypris — 50.16°N, 12.69°ECypris — 50.13°N, 12.52°ECypris — 50.17°N, 12.64°EBarstow — 34.95°N, 116.83°WBarstow — 34.94°N, 116.83°WBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 39.46°N, 108.41°WGreen River — 39.64°N, 108.76°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ELatah — 47.61°N, 117.43°WLa Pedrera de Rúbies — 42.02°N, 0.89°EHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°EKaragan — 45.05°N, 42.32°EBembridge Marls — 50.75°N, 1.34°WBembridge Marls — 50.74°N, 1.35°WEnspel — 50.61°N, 7.89°EDol — 46.24°N, 14.57°EFur — 56.90°N, 8.75°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.15°N, 9.88°EMaíz Gordo — 24.33°S, 64.47°WJohn Day — 44.13°N, 120.29°WRita Blanca — 35.71°N, 102.45°WMiyajima — 36.98°N, 139.82°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°ECampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Libelluloidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 42 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Libelluloidea and its relatives

Miocene

Where Libelluloidea and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,322 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 84 sites for Libelluloidea, 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

68 references

Each of the 127 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. 56 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 Libelluloidea

Credit
J.M.Garg
Licence
CC BY 3.0
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 itCavilabiata through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.