Yantaromyrmex geinitzi

Yantaromyrmex is an extinct genus of ants first described in 2013. Members of this genus are in the subfamily Dolichoderinae of the family Formicidae, known from Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene fossils found in Europe. The genus currently contains five described species, Y. constrictus, Y. geinitzi, Y. intermedius, Y. mayrianum and Y. samlandicus. The first specimens were collected in 1868 and studied by Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr, who originally placed the fossils in other ant genera until the fossils were reviewed and subsequently placed into their own genus. These ants are small, measuring from 4 to 6 mm in length and can be characterized by their trapezoidal shaped head-capsules and oval compound eyes that are located slightly to the rear of the capsules midpoint, with no known ocelli present.

Yantaromyrmex geinitzi

Vincent Perrichot · CC BY 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
YantaromyrmexPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 37.71 Mya and 27.3 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 30 of 31 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 31 occurrencesOligocene38–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38.2 Mya26.8 Mya

31 occurrences of Yantaromyrmex geinitzi 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

31 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

1 formation

Salt — 47.69°N, 7.53°E

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The named rock units Yantaromyrmex geinitzi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 30 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Yantaromyrmex geinitzi and its relatives

Eocene

Where Yantaromyrmex geinitzi and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,349 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Yantaromyrmex geinitzi, 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

7 references

Each of the 31 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 content1

Picture of Yantaromyrmex geinitzi

Credit
Vincent Perrichot
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Yantaromyrmex geinitzi 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 itYantaromyrmex through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Mayr 1868)