Sympetrum

Sympetrum is a genus of small to medium-sized skimmer dragonflies, known as darters in Europe and as meadowhawks in North America. The more than 50 species predominantly live in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere; 11 species are native to Europe and 15 species native to North America, and most of the rest in Asia. A few species also occur in tropical and southern Africa and in South America, but none is native to Australasia.

Sympetrum

Alvesgaspar · CC BY 2.5 · 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
SympetrinaePBDB
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 23.04 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.4–5.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.6–4.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences23.04 Mya7.246 Mya27.8 Mya4.8 Mya

8 occurrences of Sympetrum 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

8 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

Gessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°EKaragan — 45.05°N, 42.32°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°E

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The named rock units Sympetrum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sympetrum and its relatives

Miocene

Where Sympetrum and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

133 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Sympetrum, 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

6 references

Each of the 8 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 Sympetrum

Credit
Alvesgaspar
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow 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 itSympetrinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newman 1833