''Tapinoma baculum'' 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
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
in the genus ''
Tapinoma
''Tapinoma'' (from Greek ''ταπείνωμα'' low position) is a genus of ants that belongs to the subfamily Dolichoderinae. The genus currently comprises 74 described species distributed worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. Members of ...
''. Described by Zhang in 1989, fossils of the species were found in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
[Zhang, J. 1989. Fossil insects from Shanwang, Shandong, China. Jinan, China: Shandong Science and Technology Publishing House, 459 pp.]
References
†
Hymenoptera of Europe
Fossil ant taxa
Fossil taxa described in 1989
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