Pheidole

Pheidole is a genus of ants that belongs to the ant subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is widespread and ecologically dominant. Many species in the genus first evolved in the Americas, while some, such as Pheidole indica and Pheidole megacephala, originated from East Asia and Africa, respectively. These species eventually began spreading across the globe. Pheidole megacephala is considered a particularly problematic invasive species.

Pheidole

W.M. Wheeler · 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
Sits inside
AttiniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 37 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 17 occurrencesMiocene — about 10 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 17 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 17 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.8–7.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.5–6.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.3–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences33.9 Mya11.7 ka37.7 Mya0 Mya

17 occurrences of Pheidole 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

17 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

2 formations

Mazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°W

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The named rock units Pheidole has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pheidole and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pheidole and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

397 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Pheidole, 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

14 references

Each of the 17 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. 2 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 content3

Picture of Pheidole

Credit
W.M. Wheeler
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pheidole cordata · pmj:de-mus:Pa 5889

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 itAttini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Westwood 1840