Ommatidae

The Ommatidae are a family of beetles in the suborder Archostemata. The Ommatidae are considered the extant beetle family that has most ancestral characteristics. There are only seven extant species, confined to Australia and South America. However, the geographical distribution was much wider during the Mesozoic spanning across Eurasia, South America, and Australia, suggesting that they were widespread on Pangea. So far, over 26 extinct genera containing over 170 species of these beetles have been described. Three extant genera have been assigned to this family: Omma, Tetraphalerus and Beutelius. The family is considered to be a subfamily of Cupedidae by some authors, but have been found to be more closely related to Micromalthidae in molecular phylogenies. A close relationship with Micromalthidae is supported by several morphological characters, including those of the mandibles and male genitalia. Due to their rarity, their ecology is obscure, it is likely that their larvae feed on deadwood.

Ommatidae

David R. Maddison · 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
CupedoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 213 million years on record.

The record covers at least 237 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 241.464 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 6 of 172 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 4 of 172 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 11 of 172 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 8 of 172 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 27 of 172 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 79 of 172 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 35 of 172 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 172 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 172 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 172 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 172 occurrences246–238 Mya — about 4 occurrences238–230 Mya — about 2 occurrences207–199 Mya — about 6 occurrences199–191 Mya — about 5 occurrences191–183 Mya — about 2 occurrences183–176 Mya — about 2 occurrences176–168 Mya — about 2 occurrences168–160 Mya — about 7 occurrences160–152 Mya — about 10 occurrences152–144 Mya — about 16 occurrences144–137 Mya — about 4 occurrences137–129 Mya — about 3 occurrences129–121 Mya — about 32 occurrences121–113 Mya — about 35 occurrences113–105 Mya — about 3 occurrences105–97 Mya — about 17 occurrences97–90 Mya — about 19 occurrences90–82 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences43–35 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences35–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences237 Mya23.04 Mya246 Mya11 Mya

172 occurrences of Ommatidae on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

172 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

38 formations

Dzun-Bain — 45.45°N, 99.13°EDzun-Bain — 44.75°N, 101.75°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EYixian — 41.42°N, 118.97°EYixian — 41.83°N, 121.13°EYixian — 41.19°N, 119.21°EKarabastau — 42.90°N, 70.00°EKarabastau — 42.69°N, 70.41°EKarabastau — 42.95°N, 69.92°EWeald Clay — 51.13°N, 0.33°WWeald Clay — 52.72°N, 1.44°WSolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°EDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°EMadygen — 40.05°N, 70.21°EMadygen — 40.00°N, 70.20°EMadygen — 40.03°N, 70.25°ELushangfen — 39.80°N, 116.08°EJinju — 35.13°N, 128.10°EBakhar — 45.22°N, 99.17°EDurlston — 50.60°N, 1.95°WLa Pedrera de Rúbies — 42.02°N, 0.89°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.92°WDzhil — 42.70°N, 77.20°EAndaikhudag — 45.95°N, 99.60°EUlan-Argalant — 45.45°N, 99.13°EAnda-Khuduk — 45.39°N, 101.84°EArgun — 51.71°N, 113.39°ECattamarra Coal Measures — 30.26°S, 115.23°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°ECrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WLa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WShar-Tolgoy — 46.10°N, 100.68°EUlaan-Ereg — 45.59°N, 107.79°E

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The named rock units Ommatidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 42 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ommatidae and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Ommatidae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

4,098 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 95 sites for Ommatidae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

62 references

Each of the 172 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. 50 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 Ommatidae

Credit
David R. Maddison
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ommatidae 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 itCupedoidea through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sharp and Muir 1912