Aphaenogaster mayri
Aphaenogaster mayri is an extinct species of ant in formicid subfamily Myrmicinae known from a series of Late Eocene fossils found in North America. A. mayri was one of two Aphaenogaster species described in a 1930 paper by Frank M. Carpenter.
History and classification
Aphaenogaster mayri is known from a series of fossil insects which are compression-impression fossils preserved in fine shales of the Florissant formation in Colorado. The formation is composed of successive lake deposits which have preserved a diverse assemblage of insects. The insects and plants suggest a climate similar to modern southeastern North America, with a number of taxa represented that are now found in the subtropics to tropics and confined to the Old World. When A. mayri was described, the Florissant formation was considered to be Miocene in age, based on the flora and fauna preserved. Successive research and fossil descriptions moved the age older and by 1985 the formation had been reassigned to an Oligocene age. Further refinement of the formation's age using radiometric dating of sanidine crystals has resulted in an age of 34 million years old. This places the formation in the Eocene Priabonian stage.At the time of description the species was known from a series of forty-one type fossils and over two hundred good fossils were examined for the species description. The holotype was deposited in the Museum of Comparative Zoology paleontology collections at Harvard University. Along with a number of other insect type specimens, the A. mayri holotype is part of the Samuel Hubbard Scudder insect collection donated to Harvard in 1902. The fossil was first studied by paleoentomologist Frank M. Carpenter of the Museum of Comparative Zoology with his 1930 type description of the new species being published in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. The etymology for the specific epithet mayri was not given with the type description, but is likely in honour of the Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr. A. mayri was one of two Aphaenogaster species which Carpenter described in the paper, the other species being Aphaenogaster donisthorpei, both from the Florissant Formation.