Onthophagus

Onthophagus is a genus of dung beetles in the Onthophagini tribe of the wider scarab beetle family, Scarabaeidae. It is the most species-rich and widespread genus in the subfamily Scarabaeinae, with a global distribution.

Onthophagus

AfroBrazilian · 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
OnthophaginiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 33 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 33 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 33 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 5 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 33 occurrencesPleistocene — about 22 of 33 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 22 occurrences48.07 Mya129 ka57 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Onthophagus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

33 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

10 formations

Highbury Silts and Sands — 51.56°N, 0.06°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EMizozono — 31.98°N, 130.74°ETsubusagawa — 33.40°N, 131.35°ETsumori — 32.79°N, 130.86°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.70°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EBushi — 35.84°N, 139.35°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ENogami — 33.21°N, 131.15°E

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The named rock units Onthophagus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Onthophagus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Onthophagus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,339 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Onthophagus, 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

17 references

Each of the 33 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. 5 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 Onthophagus

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
tunosemi
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itOnthophagini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Latreille 1802