Meganisoptera
| Meganisoptera | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||
| Oberkarbon to Oberperm | ||||||||
| approx. 320 to 251 million years | ||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||
| Meganisoptera | ||||||||
| Martynov , 1932 |
The Meganisoptera are an extinct group of the dragonfly lineage (Odonata). They are considered either as a direct parent group of the recent dragonflies or as their sister group, with which they form the taxon Odonatoptera according to popular belief . They include the best-known representatives of the giant dragonflies Meganeura monyi (an incomplete specimen with a wingspan of up to 70 centimeters ) and Meganeuropsis permiana (up to 72 cm), and thus the largest flying insects in the history of the earth.
The older name Protodonata Brongniart , 1894, which is often used in the same sense, is unclear in its delimitation and is possibly based on a group (of the genus Protagrion ) that is not considered to belong to the lineage of dragonflies today, it is therefore derived from the most scientists avoided it today.
The following families are assigned to the Meganisoptera:
- Namurotypidae Bechly, 1996 with the only species Namurotypus sippeli Brauckmann & Zessin, 1989.
- Meganeuridae Handlirsch, 1906
- Kohlwaldiidae Guthörl, 1962
- Paralogidae Handlirsch, 1906
The delimitation of families, however, is controversial and unclear between different researchers because of the few findings so far, which is why many do not assign families at all.
These animals lived in the Upper Carboniferous about 320 million years ago until the late Permian about 250 million years ago. They were presumably distributed almost all over the world; there are finds from Europe, Russia, China, North and South America.
The oldest representatives were three species from the Namurium of Hagen-Vorhalle (approx. 320 million years old) in Germany: Namurotype sippeli (32 cm wingspan), Erasipteroides valentini and Zessinella siope . The largest giant-winged primeval dragonfly found in Germany is Stephanotypus schneideri from the Stefanium von Plötz near Halle (approx. 295 million years old) with a wingspan of 45 cm (Brauckmann & Zessin, 1989).
It has been suggested that these giant insects were only viable because of the extremely high post-carbon oxygen content of the atmosphere, which was 35 percent (today: 21%). In 2009, Meganeura fossils, which are 250 million years old and still very large, were discovered near Montpellier. For this time of the end of the Permian, an atmospheric oxygen similar to what it is today is assumed, which contradicts this theory. Newer hypotheses explain their extinction with the appearance of the first pterosaurs and also of flight reptiles such as Coelurosauravus .
swell
- Jill Silsby: Dragonflies of the World . The Natural History Museum, Plymouth 2001, ISBN 0-565-09165-4
- André Nel, Günter Bechly, Jakub Prokop, Olivier Béthoux, Gunther Fleck: Systematics and Evolution of Paleozoic And Mesozoic Damselfly-Like Odonatoptera of the 'Protozygopteran' Grade. In: Journal of Paleontology 86 (1) (2012), pp. 81-104. doi : 10.1666 / 11-020.1
media
- Les Mondes Perdus. Part: Qui a tué les insectes géants? (Erased: Who killed the fat bums?). Documentation; Direction: Emma Baus, Bertrand Loyer; Saint-Thomas Productions; F 2015; Arte, Aventure Humaine (discovery) , December 2016 ( Weblink , arte.tv ) - with numerous modern computer animations.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Picture of a life-size reconstruction
- ↑ Information from Les Mondes Perdus 2015.