Steleopteridae is a family of extinct winged damselflies whose fossils have been found in modern Germany, Great Britain and Kazakhstan, and which lived at the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous (166.1–130.0 million years ago).[1]
| Steleopteridae Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
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| Parasteleopteron guischardi | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Odonata |
| Family: | †Steleopteridae Handlirsch, 1906 |
| Genera | |
The family was described by the Austrian paleoentomologist Anton Handlirsch in 1906 on the basis of the fossilised exoskeleton Steleopteron deichmuelleri.[2][3] Hence, the type genus is Steleopteron. Handlirsch assigned the family to the Epiproctophora. In 2001, the family was excluded from the Epiproctophora and transferred into a suborder of winged damselflies, Zygoptera.[4] Until 2018, it had been believed that Steleopteridae became extinct in the Jurassic, but the discovery of Steleopteron cretacicus showed that the family may have become extinct as late as the Cretaceous.[5]
They were fast flying insectivorous/carnivorous predators.[1]
According to the Fossilworks Database website, as of November 2019, the family includes 5 extinct species:[1]
- Auliella crucigera Pritykina, 1968
- Euparasteleopteron viohli Fleck et al., 2001
- Parasteleopteron guischardi Fleck et al., 2001
- Steleopteron cretacicus Zheng et al. 2018
- Steleopteron deichmuelleri Handlirsch, 1906
References edit
- ^ a b c "Steleopteridae". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ "Steleopteron deichmuelleri". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ Handlirsch, A. 1906. Die Fossilen Insekten und die Phylogenie der Rezenten Formen, parts I-IV. Ein Handbuch fur Palaontologen und Zoologen 1-640 p.597
- ^ Fleck, G.; Nel, A.; Günter Bechly, G.; Delclòs, X. (2001). "Revision and phylogenetic affinities of the Jurassic Steleopteridae Handlirsch, 1906 (Odonata: Zygoptera)". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 32 (3): 285–305. doi:10.1163/187631201X00227. ISSN 1876-312X. Request pdf
- ^ Zheng D, Nel A, Jarzembowski EA (2018). "The first Cretaceous damselfly of the Jurassic family Steleopteridae (Odonata: Zygoptera), from Surrey, England" (PDF). Cretaceous Research. 93: 1–3. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.08.022. ISSN 0195-6671. S2CID 134007351.