Macromia

Macromia is a genus of large dragonflies in the family Macromiidae. Species of the genus Macromia are commonly known as river cruisers from their habit of cruising long distances along river banks. Most species occur in the tropical Australasian region, with one species being found in Europe , and a few species occurring in North America.

Macromia

Ted Lee Eubanks, Jr./FERMATA Inc. · Attribution · 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
river cruiserPBDB
Sits inside
MacromiidaePBDB
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 15.98 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15.98 Mya774 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

4 occurrences of Macromia 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

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

2 formations

Shanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EMiyajima — 36.98°N, 139.82°E

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The named rock units Macromia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Macromia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Macromia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

161 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Macromia, 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

3 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. 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 Macromia

Credit
Ted Lee Eubanks, Jr./FERMATA Inc.
Licence
Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itMacromiidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rambur 1842