Palaeodictyoptera

Taxobox
name = Palaeodictyoptera
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Hexapoda
classis = Insecta
superordo = Palaeodictyopteroidea
ordo = Palaeodictyoptera
ordo_authority = Goldenberg, 1877The Palaeodictyoptera are an extinct order of medium-sized to very large, primitive Palaeozoic paleopterous insects, characterised by beak-like mouthparts, similarity between fore- and hind wings, and an additional pair of winglets (large paranotal lobes) in front of the first pair of wings. The wings are often boldly marked, the colour patterns evident even in fossils. Some types attained huge size - e.g. "Mazothairos" had a wingspan of about 55 cm.

The Palaeodictyoptera are a paraphyletic assemblage of basal palaeodictyopteroidean insects, rather than a clade, because they gave rise to other insect orders. They range in time from the Middle Carboniferous (late Serpukhovian or early Bashkirian in age) to the late Permian.

External links

* [http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Paleodictyoptera&contgroup=Paleodictyopteroidea Paleodictyoptera] at the Tree of Life project (list of taxa)

References

* Carpenter, F. M. 1992. Superclass Hexapoda. Volume 3 of Part R, Arthropoda 4; "Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology", Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America.
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*cite book|author=Rasnitsyn, A.P. and Quicke, D.L.J. |title=History of Insects|year=2002|publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers|id=ISBN 1-4020-0026-X