Myrmeciites

Myrmeciites is an extinct form genus of bulldog ants in the subfamily Myrmeciinae of the family Formicidae, which contains three described species and two fossils not placed beyond the genus level. Described in 2006 from Ypresian stage deposits, all three of the described species and one unplaced fossil are from British Columbia, Canada, while the second unplaced fossil is from Washington State, USA. These ants were large, with the largest specimens collected reaching 3 centimetres (1.2 in). The behaviour of these ants would have been similar to extant Myrmeciinae ants, such as solitary foraging, nesting either in the soil or trees, and leaving no pheromone trail to food sources. Due to the poor preservation of these ants, their phylogenetic position among Myrmeciinae is unclear, and no type species has been designated. These ants are classified as incertae sedis in Myrmeciinae, but some writers have classified it as incertae sedis within the insect order Hymenoptera. This reclassification, however, has not been accepted; instead, Myrmeciites remains in Myrmeciinae.

Myrmeciites

Kevmin · 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
MyrmeciinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 48.07 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 5 occurrencesEocene — about 5 of 5 occurrencesEocene56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56.5 Mya47.6 Mya

5 occurrences of Myrmeciites on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

5 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

1 formation

Klondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°W

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The named rock units Myrmeciites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Myrmeciites and its relatives

Eocene

Where Myrmeciites and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

68 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Myrmeciites, 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

1 reference

Each of the 5 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Myrmeciites

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

No 3D scan of Myrmeciites 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 itMyrmeciinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Archibald et al. 2006