Tapinoma

Tapinoma is a genus of ants that belongs to the subfamily Dolichoderinae. The genus currently comprises 87 described species distributed worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. Species in the genus are generalized foragers, nesting in a wide variety of habitats, ranging from grasslands, open fields, woodlands, to inside buildings. The majority of species nest in the ground under objects such as stones or tree logs, other species build nests under bark of logs and stumps, in plant cavities, insect galls or refuse piles.

Tapinoma

Sarefo · 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
Sits inside
TapinominiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 2 of 13 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 8 of 13 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.7–6.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.3–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences33.9 Mya11.7 ka38.5 Mya0 Mya

13 occurrences of Tapinoma on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

13 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

Shanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°WPebas — 4.00°S, 73.15°W

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The named rock units Tapinoma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tapinoma and its relatives

Miocene

Where Tapinoma and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

562 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Tapinoma, 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

11 references

Each of the 13 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 Tapinoma

Credit
Sarefo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
tunosemi
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
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 itTapinomini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Forster 1850