Copris

Copris is a genus of dung beetles in the tribe Coprini of the scarab family. It comprises more than 250 tunnelling species and has an almost worldwide distribution.

Copris

Bruce Marlin · 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
CopriniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 2 of 10 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 10 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–4.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences15.98 Mya129 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Copris on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

10 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

4 formations

Hiwegi — 0.40°S, 34.17°EKisatibi — 41.55°N, 43.03°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EHighbury Silts and Sands — 51.56°N, 0.06°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Copris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Copris and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Copris and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

568 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Copris, 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

8 references

Each of the 10 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 Copris

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Copris sp. · Unvouchered object contributed by Ross Williams

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 itCoprini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Geoffroy 1762