Isoptera

Termites are a group of eusocial insects which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their beaded (moniliform) antennae and the soft-bodied, unpigmented worker caste for which they have been commonly termed "white ants"; however, they are not ants but highly derived cockroaches; they are genetically closer to some cockroach groups than these are to other cockroaches. About 2,997 extant species are currently described, 2,125 of which are members of the family Termitidae.

Isoptera

Photo by Scott Bauer. · Public Domain · 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
termitePBDB
Sits inside
XylophagodeaPBDB
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 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 2 of 426 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 62 of 426 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 49 of 426 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 426 occurrencesEocene — about 74 of 426 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 35 of 426 occurrencesMiocene — about 183 of 426 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 426 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 426 occurrences158–153 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences153–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence147–142 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–126 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 12 occurrences121–116 Mya — about 21 occurrences116–111 Mya — about 17 occurrences111–105 Mya — about 3 occurrences105–100 Mya — about 10 occurrences100–95 Mya — about 33 occurrences95–89 Mya — about 7 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences79–74 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences74–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 1 occurrence63–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences58–53 Mya — about 5 occurrences53–47 Mya — about 7 occurrences47–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–37 Mya — about 13 occurrences37–32 Mya — about 48 occurrences32–26 Mya — about 12 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 38 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 73 occurrences16–11 Mya — about 61 occurrences11–5.3 Mya — about 33 occurrences5.3–0 Mya — about 19 occurrences149.2 Mya11.7 ka158 Mya0 Mya

426 occurrences of Isoptera on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

426 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

60 formations

Crato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WRandeck Maar — 48.57°N, 9.53°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EBarstow — 34.95°N, 116.83°WBarstow — 34.94°N, 116.83°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WLushangfen — 39.80°N, 116.08°EFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EEscucha — 40.80°N, 0.81°WEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.72°WLatah — 46.53°N, 116.79°WLatah — 47.61°N, 117.43°WLatah — 47.64°N, 117.51°WLa Pedrera de Rúbies — 42.02°N, 0.89°EDol — 46.24°N, 14.57°EDakota — 42.50°N, 96.40°WDakota — 38.52°N, 98.78°WMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°ERenova — 45.21°N, 112.18°WHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°EMasuzawa — 39.69°N, 140.90°EDoronino — 51.99°N, 113.24°EFonseca — 20.16°S, 43.30°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°E

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The named rock units Isoptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 241 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Isoptera and its relatives

Miocene

Where Isoptera and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

7,928 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 204 sites for Isoptera, 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

151 references

Each of the 426 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. 139 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 Isoptera

Credit
Photo by Scott Bauer.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
s0299921
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 itXylophagodea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Brullé 1832)