Ephemeroptera

Mayflies are aquatic insects belonging to the order Ephemeroptera. This order is part of an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies. Over 3,000 species of mayfly are known worldwide, grouped into over 400 genera in 42 families.

Ephemeroptera

Richard Bartz , Munich aka Makro Freak Image:MFB.jpg · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
mayflyPBDB
Sits inside
HeptabranchiaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 296 million years on record.

The record covers at least 300.3 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 307.4 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 2 of 460 occurrencesPermian — about 3 of 460 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 460 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 9 of 460 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 460 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 19 of 460 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 12 of 460 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 65 of 460 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 167 of 460 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 41 of 460 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 460 occurrencesEocene — about 105 of 460 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 460 occurrencesMiocene — about 28 of 460 occurrencesPliocene — about 3 of 460 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 460 occurrences313–303 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences303–293 Mya — about 1 occurrence293–282 Mya — about 1 occurrence282–272 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences272–261 Mya — about 1 occurrence251–240 Mya — about 9 occurrences240–230 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences230–219 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences219–209 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences209–199 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences199–188 Mya — about 1 occurrence188–178 Mya — about 13 occurrences178–167 Mya — about 8 occurrences167–157 Mya — about 24 occurrences157–146 Mya — about 32 occurrences146–136 Mya — about 21 occurrences136–125 Mya — about 9 occurrences125–115 Mya — about 130 occurrences115–104 Mya — about 24 occurrences104–94 Mya — about 25 occurrences94–84 Mya — about 13 occurrences84–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–63 Mya — about 1 occurrence63–52 Mya — about 4 occurrences52–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–31 Mya — about 100 occurrences31–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–10 Mya — about 25 occurrences10–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences300.3 Mya3.6 Mya313 Mya0 Mya

460 occurrences of Ephemeroptera on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

460 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

85 formations

Crato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WTurga — 50.83°N, 116.19°ETurga — 50.70°N, 118.40°ETurga — 50.81°N, 116.14°ETurga — 51.54°N, 118.34°ETurga — 51.90°N, 115.93°ETurga — 50.46°N, 117.36°ETurga — 51.26°N, 115.90°ETurga — 53.21°N, 118.06°ETurga — 50.55°N, 116.40°ETurga — 51.34°N, 118.69°ETurga — 50.36°N, 118.79°ETurga — 50.35°N, 115.45°EYixian — 42.06°N, 121.75°EYixian — 41.16°N, 119.31°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EYixian — 41.03°N, 118.92°EYixian — 41.53°N, 121.10°EYixian — 41.83°N, 121.13°EYixian — 41.95°N, 118.89°EYixian — 41.75°N, 120.80°EYixian — 41.57°N, 120.49°EYixian — 42.74°N, 125.37°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.90°EYixian — 41.63°N, 121.65°EGlushkovo — 51.71°N, 116.93°EGlushkovo — 51.92°N, 117.62°EGlushkovo — 51.74°N, 117.36°EGlushkovo — 52.00°N, 116.00°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WCheremkhovskaya — 54.17°N, 100.31°EDoronino — 51.99°N, 113.24°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°EIchetuy — 51.44°N, 108.36°EIchetuy — 51.28°N, 108.27°EIchetuy — 51.83°N, 108.42°EIchetuy — 52.00°N, 108.00°EIchetuy — 51.27°N, 108.10°EIchetuy — 50.64°N, 105.43°EIchetuy — 50.78°N, 105.53°EIchetuy — 51.72°N, 108.28°EDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°EKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°ESharteg — 44.14°N, 95.78°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EByankino — 50.76°N, 115.66°ERaritan — 40.47°N, 74.32°WTsagaantsav — 44.52°N, 109.45°EUda — 52.37°N, 111.25°EUda — 52.35°N, 109.20°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.72°N, 7.17°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.71°N, 7.36°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.74°N, 7.25°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.83°N, 7.24°EEstellencs — 39.66°N, 2.47°ERenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WRenova — 45.21°N, 112.18°WAnda-Khuduk — 45.12°N, 101.65°EAnda-Khuduk — 45.39°N, 101.84°ESanjianfang — 42.96°N, 90.51°ERedmond — 54.69°N, 66.75°W

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The named rock units Ephemeroptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 61 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 153 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ephemeroptera and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Ephemeroptera and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

7,108 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 265 sites for Ephemeroptera, 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

178 references

Each of the 460 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. 166 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 Ephemeroptera

Credit
Richard Bartz , Munich aka Makro Freak Image:MFB.jpg
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
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 itHeptabranchia through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hyatt and Arms 1890