Zygoptera

Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies but are usually smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings along the body when at rest, unlike dragonflies which hold the wings flat and away from the body. Damselflies have existed since the Late Jurassic, and are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Zygoptera

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
damselflyPBDB
Sits inside
OdonataPBDB
Diet
carnivore, insectivorePBDB, for Odonata
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Odonata
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Odonata
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Odonata
Environment
freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Odonata

Time the record covers

At least 200 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 1.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 210 ka.

Late Triassic — about 1 of 465 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 5 of 465 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 465 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 23 of 465 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 51 of 465 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 36 of 465 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 18 of 465 occurrencesEocene — about 189 of 465 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 64 of 465 occurrencesMiocene — about 67 of 465 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 465 occurrencesPleistocene — about 6 of 465 occurrences210–203 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences203–196 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences189–182 Mya — about 1 occurrence182–175 Mya — about 4 occurrences175–168 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences168–161 Mya — about 3 occurrences161–154 Mya — about 6 occurrences154–147 Mya — about 10 occurrences147–140 Mya — about 6 occurrences140–133 Mya — about 1 occurrence133–126 Mya — about 6 occurrences126–119 Mya — about 17 occurrences119–112 Mya — about 24 occurrences112–105 Mya — about 1 occurrence105–98 Mya — about 14 occurrences98–91 Mya — about 22 occurrences91–84 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences77–70 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences70–63 Mya — about 1 occurrence63–56 Mya — about 17 occurrences56–49 Mya — about 89 occurrences49–42 Mya — about 28 occurrences42–35 Mya — about 51 occurrences35–28 Mya — about 48 occurrences28–21 Mya — about 44 occurrences21–14 Mya — about 19 occurrences14–7.0 Mya — about 24 occurrences7.0–0 Mya — about 26 occurrences201.4 Mya1.4 Mya210 Mya0 Mya

465 occurrences of Zygoptera on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

465 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

73 formations

Green River — 39.64°N, 108.76°WGreen River — 39.53°N, 107.95°WGreen River — 39.46°N, 108.41°WGreen River — 41.55°N, 109.51°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 39.72°N, 108.72°WGreen River — 39.63°N, 108.15°WGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.74°WCrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WKlondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°WFur — 56.90°N, 8.75°EFur — 56.92°N, 8.92°EFur — 56.95°N, 8.88°EFur — 56.86°N, 8.62°EFur — 56.89°N, 8.73°EFur — 56.83°N, 9.00°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WCampagne-Calavon — 43.85°N, 5.58°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESolnhofen — 48.90°N, 10.96°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EWeald Clay — 51.13°N, 0.33°WWeald Clay — 51.17°N, 0.30°WWeald Clay — 51.10°N, 0.45°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°EGessoso-solfifera — 43.90°N, 12.92°EAllenby — 49.47°N, 120.52°WAllenby — 49.43°N, 120.55°WAllenby — 49.44°N, 120.54°WMaíz Gordo — 24.33°S, 64.47°WMaíz Gordo — 24.27°S, 64.42°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ECheremkhovskaya — 54.17°N, 100.31°EIchetuy — 51.27°N, 108.10°EIchetuy — 51.72°N, 108.26°EIchetuy — 50.64°N, 105.43°EKaragan — 45.05°N, 42.32°EEifel — 50.11°N, 6.82°EDoronino — 51.99°N, 113.24°EMoler — 56.84°N, 9.00°EØlst — 56.90°N, 8.75°EØlst — 56.84°N, 8.99°EKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Zygoptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 49 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 159 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Zygoptera and its relatives

Eocene

Where Zygoptera and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

7,394 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 263 sites for Zygoptera, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

198 references

Each of the 465 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. 186 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 content1

Picture of Zygoptera

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Zygoptera was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itOdonata through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Selys-Longchamps 1854