Steleopteron cretacicus

Steleopteron cretacicus (lat.) is a species of extinct winged damselfly from the Jurassic family Steleopteridae that lived in modern Britain during the Early Cretaceous era (136.4–130 million years ago).[1] It is the first member of the Steleopteridae family, to be found living during the Cretaceous period, to be described,[2] and belongs to the genus Steleopteron. There is a sister taxon – Steleopteron deichmuelleri.[1]

Steleopteron cretacicus
Temporal range: early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Family: †Steleopteridae
Genus: †Steleopteron
Handlirsch, 1906
Species:
†S. cretacicus
Binomial name
†Steleopteron cretacicus
Zheng, Nel & Jarzembowski, 2018

The discovery of the species showed that the family Steleopteridae had not died out by the Cretaceous period.[2] These damselflies were fast insectivorous predators.[1]

The species name refers to the fact that the species existed in the Cretaceous period.[2]

Holotype
S. cretacicus holotype.
holotype drawing.The scale represents 2 mm.

The holotype, NHMUK CH 879vii, a fossilized wing, was found n lagoonal sediments in the Weald formation (136.4 – 130.0 Ma) in Surrey, United Kingdom. In 2018, Daran Zheng, A. Nel, and Edmund A. Jarzembowski described the species. The specimen is stored in the Department of Earth Sciences, Museum of Natural History London, UK.[2]

The pterostigma of the holotype is 2 mm in length and 0.5 mm in width.[2]

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References
  1. "Fossilworks: Steleopteron cretacicus". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  2. Zheng D., Nel A., Jarzembowski E.A. (2018). "The first Cretaceous damselfly of the Jurassic family Steleopteridae (Odonata: Zygoptera), from Surrey, England". Cretaceous Research. 93: 1–3. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.08.022. ISSN 0195-6671.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
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