''Pachycondyla lutzi'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species of ant in the formicid subfamily Ponerinae described by from fossils found in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

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

Pachycondyla ''Pachycondyla'' is a 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. '' P. eocenica'' and '' P. lutzi'') a ...

'' species.

History and classification

When described ''Pachycondyla lutzi'' was known from ten fossil insects which are compression-impression fossils preserved in layers of soft

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...

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

Lutetian The Lutetian is, in the geologic timescale, a stage or 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 is sometimes referred to as the Midd ...

Messel pit

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. The formation is composed of brown coals, oil shales, and

bituminous shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitute ...

, which preserved numerous insects, fish, birds, reptiles, and terrestrial mammals as a notable lagerstätten. The area is a preserved

maar lake A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

which initially formed approximately 47 million years ago as the result of volcanic explosions. At the time of description, the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen, number SMF MeI 11958, and the other nine 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. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

"lutzi" was coined as a patronym honoring Herbert Lutz, one of the first paleoentomologists to study Messel ants. The species is one of six ''Pachycondyla'' species 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.? messeliana'', '' P. parvula'', '' P. petiolosa'', and '' P. petrosa''. Another eight fossil species have been described from fossils in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Description

''Pachycondyla lutzi''

queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

have a body length of approximately and the head is slightly wider than long with rounded rear corners. The front margin of the clypeus is generally gradually rounded, and in one specimen, shows a weak concavity of the middle area on the edge. Each of the mandibles are subtriangular and have five to six fairly large teeth each. The antennae are slender in appearance, composed of a scape which extends towards the rear margin of the head and gradually tapering flagellomeres. The eyes are nearly rounded in outline, being very short ovals, and placed to the front of the midpoint on the head. In the worker known, the scape is only as long as the occipital margin, unlike the queens. The gaster was not preserved on the fossil, making a total length hard to judge, though it is estimated at around . Pachycondyla lutzi SMFMEI11481

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q21323126 †Pachycondyla lutzi Fossil taxa described in 2012 Hymenoptera of Europe Fossil ant taxa Prehistoric life of Europe Insects described in 2012