Diptera

A fly is an insect of the order Diptera, named for the single pair of wings. The hindwings have evolved into halteres, organs that sense rotation, giving flies precise control of their flight. Diptera is a large order containing more than 150,000 species, including horse-flies, crane flies, hoverflies, mosquitoes and others.

Diptera

Uncredited · 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
flyPBDB
Sits inside
AntliophoraPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 387 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 390.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Devonian — about 1 of 8451 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 8451 occurrencesPermian — about 0 of 8451 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 8451 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 43 of 8451 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 31 of 8451 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 251 of 8451 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 126 of 8451 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 675 of 8451 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 965 of 8451 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 680 of 8451 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 19 of 8451 occurrencesEocene — about 3499 of 8451 occurrencesOligocene — about 846 of 8451 occurrencesMiocene — about 1041 of 8451 occurrencesPliocene — about 76 of 8451 occurrencesPleistocene — about 109 of 8451 occurrences398–385 Mya — about 1 occurrence252–239 Mya — about 38 occurrences239–226 Mya — about 10 occurrences226–212 Mya — about 14 occurrences212–199 Mya — about 30 occurrences199–186 Mya — about 52 occurrences186–173 Mya — about 182 occurrences173–159 Mya — about 191 occurrences159–146 Mya — about 498 occurrences146–133 Mya — about 185 occurrences133–119 Mya — about 416 occurrences119–106 Mya — about 417 occurrences106–93 Mya — about 447 occurrences93–80 Mya — about 170 occurrences80–66 Mya — about 120 occurrences66–53 Mya — about 167 occurrences53–40 Mya — about 479 occurrences40–27 Mya — about 3240 occurrences27–13 Mya — about 1302 occurrences13–0 Mya — about 494 occurrences387.95 Mya11.7 ka398 Mya0 Mya

8,451 occurrences of Diptera on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

8,451 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

203 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.60°N, 7.25°ERott — 50.59°N, 7.24°EKarabastau — 42.90°N, 70.00°EKarabastau — 42.69°N, 70.41°EKarabastau — 42.95°N, 69.92°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WBouldnor — 50.75°N, 1.35°WDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°EGreen River — 42.00°N, 107.00°WGreen River — 39.46°N, 108.41°WGreen River — 39.60°N, 108.40°WGreen River — 39.94°N, 108.20°WGreen River — 39.98°N, 109.11°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 108.00°WGreen River — 38.90°N, 109.20°WGreen River — 38.80°N, 108.25°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WGreen River — 41.82°N, 110.76°WGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGreen River — 39.23°N, 108.22°WGreen River — 39.63°N, 108.15°WGreen River — 40.01°N, 108.11°WGreen River — 39.79°N, 109.07°WGreen River — 39.83°N, 108.06°WGreen River — 39.64°N, 108.76°WGreen River — 42.13°N, 110.13°WGreen River — 39.51°N, 108.03°WBarstow — 34.95°N, 116.83°WBarstow — 34.94°N, 116.83°WGlushkovo — 51.71°N, 116.93°EGlushkovo — 51.92°N, 117.62°EGlushkovo — 51.74°N, 117.36°EGlushkovo — 51.82°N, 117.17°EGlushkovo — 53.74°N, 102.56°EGlushkovo — 51.86°N, 117.45°ESharteg — 44.14°N, 95.78°EArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EForemost — 49.83°N, 111.70°WLaiyang — 36.78°N, 120.67°ELaiyang — 37.03°N, 120.79°ELaiyang — 37.01°N, 120.86°ELaiyang — 36.76°N, 120.64°ELaiyang — 37.05°N, 120.96°EGurvan-Eren — 48.07°N, 91.65°EGurvan-Eren — 46.38°N, 93.95°EGurvan-Eren — 46.30°N, 93.80°EGurvan-Eren — 46.99°N, 95.46°EGurvan-Eren — 48.45°N, 92.27°EDzun-Bain — 45.45°N, 99.13°EDzhil — 42.70°N, 77.20°EKheta — 71.63°N, 100.97°EKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°EKheta — 72.03°N, 101.33°ECrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°ERaritan — 40.47°N, 74.32°WRaritan — 40.43°N, 74.33°WPosidonia Shale — 52.36°N, 10.71°EPosidonia Shale — 52.36°N, 10.59°EPosidonia Shale — 52.31°N, 10.62°EPosidonia Shale — 52.27°N, 10.68°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°W

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The named rock units Diptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 179 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 4,437 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diptera and its relatives

Eocene

Where Diptera and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

7,072 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 394 sites for Diptera, and this reads 240 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

1,427 references

Each of the 8,451 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. 1,415 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 content2

Picture of Diptera

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itAntliophora through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758