Titanomyrma gigantea

Titanomyrma is a genus of extinct giant ants which lived during the Eocene. The type species Titanomyrma gigantea and the smaller Titanomyrma simillima are known from the Eocene of Germany, while the third species, Titanomyrma lubei, is known from Wyoming, United States. The presence of Titanomyrma in North America was considered to indicate "the first reported cross-Arctic dispersal by a thermophilic insect group". However, a queen reported from upland temperate shales in British Columbia raised questions on the exact thermophilic nature of the genus. The type species of this genus, T. gigantea, is the largest-known species of ant, whether fossil or extant, in the world.

Titanomyrma gigantea

Ute Kiel · CC BY 4.0 · 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
TitanomyrmaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At most 7.1 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 48.07 Mya and 41.03 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesEocene48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.6 Mya40.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Titanomyrma gigantea 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

3 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

Messel — 49.93°N, 8.75°E

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The named rock units Titanomyrma gigantea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Titanomyrma gigantea and its relatives

Eocene

Where Titanomyrma gigantea and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

160 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Titanomyrma gigantea, 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 3 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Titanomyrma gigantea

Credit
Ute Kiel
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Titanomyrma gigantea 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 itTitanomyrma through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lutz 1986)