Calopterygoidea

Calopterygoidea is a superfamily of damselflies comprising the families Calopterygidae and Chlorocyphidae. Members are widely distributed, occurring on every continent except Antarctica.

Calopterygoidea

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 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
CalopterygomorphaPBDB
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 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 30 occurrencesEocene — about 15 of 30 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 30 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 30 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 30 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 30 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 6 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–8.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.9–7.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.1–5.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.2–3.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.4–1.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48.07 Mya3.6 Mya57 Mya2 Mya

30 occurrences of Calopterygoidea on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

30 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

10 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WMontgomery Creek — 40.74°N, 121.97°WGreen River — 39.46°N, 108.41°WOya — 32.63°N, 130.17°EGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°EPaldau — 46.94°N, 15.81°ENingming — 22.14°N, 107.03°ESwauk — 47.33°N, 120.58°W

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The named rock units Calopterygoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Calopterygoidea and its relatives

Eocene

Where Calopterygoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,425 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Calopterygoidea, 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

19 references

Each of the 30 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. 7 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 Calopterygoidea

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Calopterygoidea 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 itCalopterygomorpha through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Selys-Longchamps 1850