Megasecoptera

Megasecoptera is a Paleozoic insect order. There are 22 known families of megasecopterans, with about 35 known genera.

Megasecoptera

Jakub Prokop, Ewa Krzemińska, Wiesław Krzemiński, Kateřina Rosová, Martina Pecharová, André Nel and Michael S. Engel · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MegasecopteromorphaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 69 million years on record.

The record covers at least 323.6 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 326.9 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 78 of 155 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 77 of 155 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 155 occurrences328–326 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences326–323 Mya — about 1 occurrence323–321 Mya — about 2 occurrences321–318 Mya — about 3 occurrences318–315 Mya — about 10 occurrences315–313 Mya — about 7 occurrences313–310 Mya — about 4 occurrences310–308 Mya — about 13 occurrences308–305 Mya — about 3 occurrences305–302 Mya — about 10 occurrences302–300 Mya — about 18 occurrences300–297 Mya — about 11 occurrences297–295 Mya — about 7 occurrences295–292 Mya — about 3 occurrences292–289 Mya — about 3 occurrences289–287 Mya — about 12 occurrences287–284 Mya — about 12 occurrences284–282 Mya — about 9 occurrences282–279 Mya — about 7 occurrences279–276 Mya — about 7 occurrences276–274 Mya — about 6 occurrences274–271 Mya — about 2 occurrences271–269 Mya — about 2 occurrences269–266 Mya — about 1 occurrence261–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–256 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences256–253 Mya — about 1 occurrence253–250 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences323.6 Mya254.14 Mya328 Mya250 Mya

155 occurrences of Megasecoptera on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

155 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

30 formations

Wellington — 36.33°N, 97.28°WWellington — 36.51°N, 97.32°WWellington — 36.90°N, 97.38°WWellington — 38.64°N, 97.21°WCommentry Shales — 46.29°N, 2.75°EKoshelevka — 57.42°N, 57.27°EKoshelevka — 57.03°N, 57.72°EKoshelevka — 57.77°N, 57.85°ECarbondale — 41.34°N, 88.39°WCarbondale — 41.22°N, 88.21°WCarbondale — 41.32°N, 88.25°WLetovice — 49.46°N, 16.60°EYanghugou — 37.44°N, 105.04°EShanxi — 37.83°N, 112.40°EShanxi — 35.99°N, 110.99°EBajo de Veliz — 32.25°S, 65.52°WPospelovo — 43.05°N, 131.90°EBaitugan — 55.89°N, 53.34°EIva-Gora Beds — 65.55°N, 43.67°EPetrolia — 33.41°N, 99.13°WLancaster — 45.24°N, 66.08°WManning Canyon — 40.39°N, 111.96°WJoggins — 45.38°N, 64.39°WStanton — 38.35°N, 95.33°WFlöz Dreibänke — 52.32°N, 8.01°EMalanzán — 30.80°S, 66.61°WAlykaevskaya — 55.47°N, 86.01°EAykhal — 65.94°N, 111.47°EPottsville — 33.81°N, 87.17°WPoldarsa — 60.61°N, 45.62°EXiashihezi — 35.72°N, 110.78°ELek-Vorkuta — 67.77°N, 64.13°E

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The named rock units Megasecoptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 25 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megasecoptera and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Megasecoptera and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

1,502 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 81 sites for Megasecoptera, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

73 references

Each of the 155 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 61 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Megasecoptera

Credit
Jakub Prokop, Ewa Krzemińska, Wiesław Krzemiński, Kateřina Rosová, Martina Pecharová, André Nel and Michael S. Engel
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megasecoptera was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegasecopteromorpha through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brongniart 1885