Messelepone
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Messelepone Temporal range: Middle Eocene |
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| M. leptogenoides holotype | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Genus: | †Messelepone |
| Species: | †M. leptogenoides |
| Binomial name | |
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Messelepone leptogenoides Dlussky & Wedmann, 2012 |
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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.
When described, Messelepone was known from two fossil insects which are compression-impression fossils preserved in layers of soft sedimentary rock. Along with other well preserved insect fossils, the Messelepone specimens were collected from layers of the Lutetian Messel pit World Heritage Site. 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 queen and paratype male 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 both the genus and species named in it. The genus name is a combination of the ant genus Ponera and Messel after the type locality. The specific epithet was derived from the modern ant genus name Leptogenys, which M. leptogenoides has similarities to.
Messelepone 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 Cephalopone, Cyrtopone, and Protopone are also placed in Ponerinae. The genus Casaleia is placed in Amblyoponinae, while the last genus Pseudectatomma is in Ectatomminae.
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