Palaeodictyoptera

The Palaeodictyoptera are an extinct order of medium-sized to very large, primitive Palaeozoic paleopterous insects. They are informative about the evolution of wings in insects.

Palaeodictyoptera

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
PalaeodictyopteridaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 63 million years on record.

The record covers at least 323.6 Mya to 259.857 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 326.9 Mya to 254.14 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 309 of 367 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 58 of 367 occurrencesPermian328–326 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences326–323 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences323–321 Mya — about 5 occurrences321–318 Mya — about 15 occurrences318–316 Mya — about 34 occurrences316–313 Mya — about 26 occurrences313–311 Mya — about 23 occurrences311–308 Mya — about 68 occurrences308–306 Mya — about 32 occurrences306–303 Mya — about 16 occurrences303–301 Mya — about 54 occurrences301–298 Mya — about 39 occurrences298–296 Mya — about 7 occurrences296–293 Mya — about 6 occurrences293–291 Mya — about 1 occurrence291–288 Mya — about 3 occurrences288–285 Mya — about 3 occurrences285–283 Mya — about 3 occurrences283–280 Mya — about 5 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 5 occurrences278–275 Mya — about 5 occurrences275–273 Mya — about 5 occurrences273–270 Mya — about 4 occurrences270–268 Mya — about 4 occurrences268–265 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–258 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences258–255 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences255–253 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences323.6 Mya259.857 Mya328 Mya253 Mya

367 occurrences of Palaeodictyoptera 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

367 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

58 formations

Commentry Shales — 46.29°N, 2.75°ECarbondale — 41.34°N, 88.39°WCarbondale — 41.31°N, 88.21°WCarbondale — 41.22°N, 88.21°WCarbondale — 39.12°N, 86.98°WFlöz Dreibänke — 52.32°N, 8.01°ELower Saarbrucker layer — 49.32°N, 7.07°ELower Saarbrucker layer — 49.28°N, 7.03°ELower Saarbrucker layer — 49.38°N, 7.25°EGeisheck — 49.26°N, 7.00°EGeisheck — 49.38°N, 7.25°EKata — 61.58°N, 96.44°EKata — 51.15°N, 86.69°EKata — 61.74°N, 98.98°EKata — 63.04°N, 111.15°EIva-Gora Beds — 65.55°N, 43.67°EFlöz Zweibänke — 52.32°N, 8.01°EBursum — 34.84°N, 106.91°WWellington — 38.64°N, 97.21°WWellington — 36.43°N, 97.32°WLekvorkuta — 67.77°N, 64.13°ELekvorkuta — 67.60°N, 64.05°ELekvorkuta — 68.60°N, 62.65°EAlykaevskaya — 55.07°N, 84.72°EAlykaevskaya — 55.13°N, 86.78°EAlykaevskaya — 55.47°N, 86.01°EAlykaevskaya — 55.15°N, 85.84°EPottsville — 33.81°N, 87.17°WPottsville — 33.53°N, 86.88°WPottsville — 33.95°N, 87.61°WPottsville — 33.17°N, 87.03°WPottsville — 40.63°N, 76.45°WLetovice — 49.46°N, 16.60°EKoshelevka — 57.03°N, 57.72°EKoshelevka — 57.80°N, 57.75°ELancaster — 45.24°N, 66.08°WLek-Vorkuta — 67.77°N, 64.13°EYanghugou — 37.44°N, 105.04°EYanghugou — 37.44°N, 105.05°EFlénu — 50.45°N, 3.90°EFlénu — 50.44°N, 3.83°EFarrington — 51.28°N, 2.46°WFarrington — 51.30°N, 2.43°WSaarbrücken — 49.32°N, 7.07°ESaarbrücken — 49.30°N, 7.00°EFlöz Mittel — 52.32°N, 8.01°EKarvina — 49.80°N, 18.47°ELlewellyn — 41.36°N, 75.79°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Palaeodictyoptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 34 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 74 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeodictyoptera and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Palaeodictyoptera and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

1,753 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 196 sites for Palaeodictyoptera, 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

157 references

Each of the 367 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. 145 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 Palaeodictyoptera

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 was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itPalaeodictyopterida through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Goldenberg 1877