Protelytroptera

Protelytroptera is an extinct order of insects thought to be a stem group from which the modern Dermaptera evolved. These insects, which resemble modern Blattodea, or cockroaches, are known from the Permian of North America, Europe and Australia, from the fossils of their shell-like forewings and the large, unequal anal fan. None of their fossils are known from the Triassic, when the morphological changes from Protelytroptera to Dermaptera presumably took place.

Protelytroptera

L. Shyamal · Public Domain · 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
ExopterygotaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 46 million years on record.

The record covers at least 300.9 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 301.4 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 2 of 76 occurrencesPermian — about 74 of 76 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 76 occurrences302–301 Mya — about 1 occurrence301–299 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences299–297 Mya — about 3 occurrences297–296 Mya — about 3 occurrences296–294 Mya — about 3 occurrences294–292 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 8 occurrences289–287 Mya — about 10 occurrences287–285 Mya — about 10 occurrences285–284 Mya — about 10 occurrences284–282 Mya — about 2 occurrences282–280 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences278–277 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences277–275 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences275–273 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences273–272 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences272–270 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences270–268 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences268–266 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences266–265 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences265–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 13 occurrences253–251 Mya — about 6 occurrences300.9 Mya254.14 Mya302 Mya251 Mya

76 occurrences of Protelytroptera on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

76 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

7 formations

Wellington — 38.64°N, 97.21°WCroudace Bay — 33.02°S, 151.67°ELetovice — 49.46°N, 16.60°EKoshelevka — 57.03°N, 57.72°EKoshelevka — 57.77°N, 57.84°EIva-Gora Beds — 65.55°N, 43.67°ELower Gehrener — 50.66°N, 10.85°EAbrahamskraal — 32.62°S, 20.42°E

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The named rock units Protelytroptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protelytroptera and its relatives

Permian

Where Protelytroptera and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

688 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Protelytroptera, 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

15 references

Each of the 76 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. 3 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 Protelytroptera

Credit
L. Shyamal
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protelytroptera 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 itExopterygota through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tillyard 1931