Myrmeciinae

Myrmeciinae is a subfamily of the Formicidae, ants once found worldwide but now restricted to Australia and New Caledonia. This subfamily is one of several ant subfamilies which possess gamergates, female worker ants which are able to mate and reproduce, thus sustaining the colony after the loss of the queen. The Myrmeciinae subfamily was formerly composed of only one genus, Myrmecia, but the subfamily was redescribed by Ward & Brady in 2003 to include two tribes and four genera. An additional three genera, one form genus, and 9 species were described in 2006 from the Early Eocene of Denmark, Canada, and Washington. Subsequently an additional fossil genus was moved from the family Rhopalosomatidae in 2018, and a new genus was described in 2021.

Myrmeciinae

Peter bertok at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
bulldog antPBDB
Sits inside
MyrmeciomorphaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 31 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 61.66 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 42 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 40 of 42 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 42 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 42 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 3 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 3 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 4 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 5 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–41 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 4 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59.24 Mya27.3 Mya62.4 Mya22.3 Mya

42 occurrences of Myrmeciinae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

42 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

7 formations

Green River — 39.63°N, 108.15°WGreen River — 39.53°N, 107.95°WGreen River — 39.40°N, 108.21°WKlondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°WVentana — 41.10°S, 70.82°WVentana — 40.72°S, 71.07°WØlst — 56.84°N, 8.99°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EFur — 56.90°N, 8.75°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°E

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The named rock units Myrmeciinae 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.

Myrmeciinae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Myrmeciinae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,494 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Myrmeciinae, 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

16 references

Each of the 42 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. 4 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 Myrmeciinae

Credit
Peter bertok at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Myrmeciinae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itMyrmeciomorpha through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Smith 1851