Gerromorpha

The Gerromorpha comprise an infraorder of insects in the "true bug" order Hemiptera. These "typical" bugs are commonly called semiaquatic bugs or shore-inhabiting bugs. The Ochteroidea (infraorder Nepomorpha are also found in shore habitat, while the Gerromorpha are actually most often encountered running around on the water surface, being kept from sinking by surface tension and their water-repellent legs. Well-known members of the Gerromorpha are the namesake Gerridae.

Gerromorpha

James K. Lindsey · 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
semi-aquatic bugPBDB
Sits inside
HeteropteraPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 149 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Jurassic — about 4 of 122 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 19 of 122 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 5 of 122 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 122 occurrencesEocene — about 70 of 122 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 122 occurrencesMiocene — about 13 of 122 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 122 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 122 occurrences158–153 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences153–147 Mya — about 2 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 1 occurrence121–116 Mya — about 5 occurrences116–111 Mya — about 4 occurrences111–105 Mya — about 2 occurrences105–100 Mya — about 9 occurrences100–95 Mya — about 4 occurrences95–89 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences63–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences58–53 Mya — about 14 occurrences53–47 Mya — about 20 occurrences47–42 Mya — about 6 occurrences42–37 Mya — about 7 occurrences37–32 Mya — about 25 occurrences32–26 Mya — about 4 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 7 occurrences16–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–5.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.3–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence149.2 Mya129 ka158 Mya0 Mya

122 occurrences of Gerromorpha 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

122 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

26 formations

Fur — 56.89°N, 8.67°EFur — 56.92°N, 8.92°EFur — 56.95°N, 8.88°EFur — 56.90°N, 8.79°EØlst — 56.84°N, 9.00°ECrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WEifel — 50.11°N, 6.82°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WNiubao — 32.02°N, 89.77°ENiubao — 31.80°N, 87.76°ETranquille — 50.13°N, 120.51°WGreen River — 41.82°N, 110.76°WGreen River — 42.13°N, 110.13°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°ESharteg — 44.14°N, 95.77°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°EKarabastau — 42.69°N, 70.41°EAllenby — 49.45°N, 120.59°WPesciara — 45.60°N, 11.20°ESalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°ENove Sedlo — 50.63°N, 14.16°ERenova — 45.21°N, 112.18°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EYanigua — 18.98°N, 69.45°WOlympia beds — 47.66°N, 122.43°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°ETremembé — 22.95°S, 45.54°W

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The named rock units Gerromorpha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 51 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gerromorpha and its relatives

Eocene

Where Gerromorpha and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

4,161 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 84 sites for Gerromorpha, and this reads all 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

57 references

Each of the 122 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 Gerromorpha

Credit
James K. Lindsey
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Gerromorpha was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itHeteroptera through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Popov 1971