''Cephalopone'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus of ants in the formicid subfamily

Ponerinae Ponerinae, the ponerine ants, is a subfamily of ants in the Poneromorph subfamilies group, with about 1,600 species in 47 extant genera, including '' Dinoponera gigantea'' - one of the world's largest species of ant. Mated workers have replac ...

described from fossils found in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. There are two described species placed into the genus, ''Cephalopone grandis'' and ''Cephalopone potens''. ''Cephalopone'' is one several Lutetian Ponerinae genera.

History and classification

When described, ''Cephalopone'' was known from three fossil insects which are compression-impression fossils preserved in layers of soft

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock formed by the cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or deposited at Earth's surface. Sedime ...

rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the ''Cephalopone'' specimens were collected from layers of the

Lutetian The Lutetian is, in the geologic timescale, a stage (stratigraphy), stage or age (geology), age in the Eocene. It spans the time between . The Lutetian is preceded by the Ypresian and is followed by the Bartonian. Together with the Bartonian it ...

Messel pit The Messel Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation in Hesse, central Germany, dating back to the Eocene Epoch (geology), epoch (about 47 Ma). Its geographic range is restricted to the Messel pit. There it unconformably overlie ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The formation is composed of brown coals, oil shales, and bituminous shale, which preserved numerous insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and terrestrial mammals as a notable lagerstätten. The area is a preserved maar lake which initially formed approximately 47 million years ago as the result of volcanic explosions. At the time of description, the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

and

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

specimens were preserved in the Senckenberg Research Station Messel fossil collections. The fossils were described by Gennady Dlussky and Sonja Wedmann in a 2012 paper on the poneromorph ants of Messel, with the genus and both species named in it. The genus name is a combination of the ant genus '' Ponera'' and the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word ''cephale'', meaning head. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

"grandis" is derived from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

meaning "strong," while the name "potens" is based on the Latin meaning "strong" or "powerful". ''Cephalopone'' is one of five extinct genera from three subfamilies which have species described from Messel Formation fossils by Dlussky and Wedmann in 2012. Three of the other genera '' Cyrtopone'', ''

Messelepone ''Messelepone'' is an extinct genus of ants in the formicid subfamily Ponerinae described from fossils found in Europe. ''M. leptogenoides'' is the only species assigned to the genus, which is one of several Lutetian Ponerinae genera. History ...

'', and ''

Protopone ''Protopone'' is an extinct genus of ants in the Formicidae, formicid subfamily Ponerinae described from fossils found in Europe and Asia. There are seven described species placed into the genus, ''Protopone? dubia'', ''Protopone germanica'', '' ...

'' are also placed in Ponerinae. The genus '' Casaleia'' is placed in Amblyoponinae, while the last genus '' Pseudectatomma'' is in Ectatomminae.

Description

The ''Cephalopone''

queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

from Messel are described as large, having approximate body lengths ranging over . Species have heads that are up to, but no longer than 1.5 times the length of the

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. Wasps, bees and a ...

. The subtriangular mandibles are large, being over 80% of the length of the head, and have nine to ten teeth on the chewing faces. Like ''Protopone'' species, the antennae sockets are widely placed on the head, in contrast to those seen in ''

Pachycondyla ''Pachycondyla'' is a Ponerinae, ponerine genus of ants found in the Neotropics. Distribution ''Pachycondyla'' is currently distributed from southern United States to northern Argentina, but some fossil species (e.g. ''Pachycondyla eocenica, P. ...

'' which are close together. On both the hind and middle tibiae there are a pair of spurs, one simple and one pectinate. The petiole is rounded with a helcium that projects of the front face of the gasteral segment.

''C. grandis''

''C. grandis'' is known from a single fossil, consisting of a winged gyne preserved with the top of the body showing in the fossil. The body has an approximate length of with a squared off head that has slightly bulged back margin with rounded corners on each side. The clypeus has a slight downward cure along its front edge and bears a pair of protrusions on the lateral edges. The antennae have segments that range from 1.2 to 2 times as long as they are wide, with a scape is slightly extending past the back edge of the head. The large mandibles are about 87% of the head length and each one has ten teeth. The two teeth at the ends of the mandibles are both large, while the remaining teeth alternate between large and small.

''C. potens''

Two specimens were used to describe ''C. potens'', both of mostly complete winged queens preserved as dorsal impressions. The body length of the queens is between with a square shaped petiole and a

that is 1.5-1.6 times longer than the head. The small eyes are placed just to the front of the heads midpoint. The clypeus is rounded on it front edge and the antennae have a scape which reaches the back edge of the head. The

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

s are approximately the length of the head, subtriangular in shape, and have nine teeth alternating between large and small.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q21344590 †Cephalopone Fossil taxa described in 2012 Hymenoptera of Europe Fossil ant genera Eocene insects of Europe Lutetian insects