Pterostichus

Pterostichus is a very large genus of ground beetles with a Holarctic distribution in the subfamily Harpalinae. It has over 1,200 species. The beetles are predatory, but sometimes feed on strawberries. They can be found under rocks and prefer slightly moist, sandy soil although preferences differ between species.

Pterostichus

Siga · 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
PterostichinaPBDB
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 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 6 of 198 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 198 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 14 of 198 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 198 occurrencesPleistocene — about 174 of 198 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.7–6.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.4–5.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.1–3.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.8–2.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.6–1.3 Mya — about 39 occurrences1.3–0 Mya — about 134 occurrences33.9 Mya129 ka38.5 Mya0 Mya

198 occurrences of Pterostichus 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

198 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

21 formations

Kap København — 82.47°N, 23.66°WKap København — 82.45°N, 24.10°WKap København — 82.32°N, 23.85°WKap København — 82.35°N, 24.05°WHighbury Silts and Sands — 51.56°N, 0.06°WKeremesit — 69.50°N, 158.50°EKeremesit — 69.17°N, 158.12°EEdoma — 69.50°N, 158.50°EScarborough — 43.70°N, 79.24°WScarborough — 43.73°N, 79.29°WTitusville Till — 41.62°N, 79.64°WOler — 69.50°N, 158.50°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WOlympia beds — 47.66°N, 122.43°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EImuruk Volcanics — 65.88°N, 163.13°WSalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WCastle Eden Fissure-Fill — 54.74°N, 1.33°WLatah — 47.69°N, 117.47°WBegunovskaya — 68.17°N, 157.75°EOokui — 36.34°N, 138.34°EHvitland Beds — 81.09°N, 89.96°WNogami — 33.21°N, 131.15°ETsubusagawa — 33.40°N, 131.35°EMizozono — 31.98°N, 130.74°E

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The named rock units Pterostichus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 72 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pterostichus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Pterostichus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,154 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 104 sites for Pterostichus, 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

34 references

Each of the 198 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. 22 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 Pterostichus

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

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pterostichus Pterostichus niger · ETHZ:ENT:0576144

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 itPterostichina through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonelli 1810