Scarabaeidae

The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 35,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change. Several groups formerly treated as subfamilies have been elevated to family rank, and some reduced to lower ranks. The subfamilies listed in this article are in accordance with those in Catalogue of Life (2023).

Scarabaeidae

Edmund Reitter · Public Domain · 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
scarab beetlePBDB
Sits inside
ScarabaeoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 33 of 467 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 467 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 467 occurrencesEocene — about 89 of 467 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 17 of 467 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 80 of 467 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 467 occurrencesPleistocene — about 229 of 467 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 4 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 12 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 11 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 6 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–56 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 6 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 13 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 7 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 56 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 7 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 6 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 10 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 32 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 16 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 27 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 242 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

467 occurrences of Scarabaeidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

467 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

48 formations

Highbury Silts and Sands — 51.56°N, 0.06°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°EEifel — 50.11°N, 6.82°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EMizozono — 31.98°N, 130.74°EKap København — 82.47°N, 23.66°WKap København — 82.45°N, 24.10°WKap København — 82.32°N, 23.85°WKap København — 82.39°N, 24.18°WOlympia beds — 47.66°N, 122.43°WTitusville Till — 41.62°N, 79.64°WKeremesit — 69.50°N, 158.50°EKeremesit — 69.17°N, 158.12°EYixian — 41.54°N, 118.92°EYixian — 41.42°N, 118.97°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EYixian — 41.19°N, 119.21°ETsumori — 32.79°N, 130.86°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WGreen River — 39.98°N, 109.11°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WGreen River — 39.63°N, 108.15°WGreen River — 39.64°N, 108.76°WLeskovskaya — 51.70°N, 116.93°EHirabaru — 33.40°N, 131.64°ENogami — 33.21°N, 131.15°ETsubusagawa — 33.40°N, 131.35°EHiwegi — 0.40°S, 34.17°EArgun — 51.71°N, 113.39°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.70°WCockfield — 35.68°N, 88.82°WCockfield — 36.37°N, 88.35°W

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The named rock units Scarabaeidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 152 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scarabaeidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Scarabaeidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

6,542 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 224 sites for Scarabaeidae, 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

124 references

Each of the 467 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. 112 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 Scarabaeidae

Credit
Edmund Reitter
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Scarabaeidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itScarabaeoidea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Latreille 1802