Aeshnidae

Aeshnidae, also called aeshnids, hawkers, or darners, is a family of dragonflies, found nearly worldwide, with more than 50 genera and over 450 species.

Aeshnidae

JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · 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
Also called
darner dragonflyPBDB
Sits inside
AeshnoideaPBDB
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 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 6 of 108 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 108 occurrencesPaleocene — about 2 of 108 occurrencesEocene — about 33 of 108 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 24 of 108 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 38 of 108 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 108 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 108 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 2 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 3 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 1 occurrence115–111 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 6 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 5 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 18 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 9 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 9 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 9 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 16 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

108 occurrences of Aeshnidae 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

108 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

33 formations

Gessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WBembridge Marls — 50.74°N, 1.36°WKlondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°WMost — 50.57°N, 13.73°EMost — 50.05°N, 13.77°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ELa Pedrera de Rúbies — 42.02°N, 0.89°ESalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°ECalcàries de Tàrrega — 41.64°N, 1.32°EEnspel — 50.61°N, 7.89°EMenilite — 49.49°N, 17.79°EPoole — 50.72°N, 1.88°WPaskapoo — 52.27°N, 113.59°WMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°EHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°ECampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EThermalsinterkalk — 48.41°N, 9.55°EKaragan — 45.05°N, 42.32°Ela Pedrera de Rubies — 42.01°N, 0.96°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°E

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The named rock units Aeshnidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 34 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aeshnidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Aeshnidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,440 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 72 sites for Aeshnidae, 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

57 references

Each of the 108 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. 45 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 Aeshnidae

Credit
JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itAeshnoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leach 1815