Polystoechotites

Polystoechotites is an extinct parataxon of lacewings in the moth lacewing family Ithonidae. The taxon is a collective group for fossil polystechotid giant lacewing species whose genus affiliation is uncertain, but which are distinct enough to identify as segregate species. Polystoechotites species are known from Eocene fossils found in North America and is composed of four named species Polystoechotites barksdalae, Polystoechotites falcatus, Polystoechotites lewisi, and Polystoechotites piperatus, plus two unnamed species. Three of the described species are known from fossils recovered from the Eocene Okanagan Highlands of Washington State, while the fourth is from Colorado.

Polystoechotites

Kevmin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
IthonidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 37 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 6 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 6 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48.07 Mya37 Mya56.5 Mya33.4 Mya

6 occurrences of Polystoechotites on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

6 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

3 formations

Klondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°WTranquille — 50.13°N, 120.51°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°W

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

Polystoechotites and its relatives

Eocene

Where Polystoechotites and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

107 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Polystoechotites, 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

2 references

Each of the 6 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Polystoechotites

Credit
Kevmin
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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 itIthonidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Archibald and Makarkin 2006