''Pachycondyla parvula'' 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 ...

species of ant 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 by from a fossil 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 ...

. ''P. parvula'' is one of six Lutetian ''

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. ...

'' species.

History and classification

When described ''Pachycondyla parvula'' was known from six 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 ''P. parvula'' specimens were collected from layers of

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

rock in the

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 Messel 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 ...

specimen, number SMF MeI 10638, along with the paratype and four additional ants 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. In the type description Dlussky and Wedmann named the species ''P. minuta'', with 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 ...

chosen in recognition of small size of the adults. However the combination ''Pachycondyla minuta'' had already been used by W. MacKay and E. MacKay in 2010 for a living ant species from Mexico, now named '' Rasopone minuta''. Due to ''P. minuta'' being a

junior homonym In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the s ...

, a new name combination, ''Pachycondyla parvula'' was proposed for the species in a 2015 paper, with the species name "parvula" coming 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 ...

for small or tiny. The species is one of six ''Pachycondyla'' which have been described from Messel Formation fossils. All six of the species were described by Dlussky and Wedmann in the same 2012 paper, the other five being '' P. eocenica'', '' P. lutzi'', '' P.? messeliana'', '' P. petiolosa'', and '' P. petrosa''. Another eight fossil species have been described from fossils in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Description

The small ''Pachycondyla parvula''

queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

has a body length of approximately and the head is , while the alitrunk is . The antennae scape extends towards the rear margin of the head but does not extend past it. The eyes are noted to be rather small and placed slightly forward of the heads midpoint. Where preserved the

mandibles 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 ...

are subtriangular in outline had each has seven teeth. The petiole is rounded in side view, with a high, thick scale.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q21079213 †Pachycondyla parvula Fossil taxa described in 2012 Hymenoptera of Europe Fossil ant taxa Prehistoric life of Europe Insects described in 2015