Raphidioptera

Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order Raphidioptera, from Ancient Greek ῥαφίς (rhaphís), meaning "needle", and πτερόν (pterón), meaning "wing", with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than it does now; snakeflies are found in temperate regions worldwide but are absent from the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere. Recognizable representatives of the group first appeared during the Early Jurassic. They are a relict group, having reached their apex of diversity during the Cretaceous before undergoing substantial decline.

Raphidioptera

Beentree · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Also called
snakeflyPBDB
Sits inside
NeuropteridaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 267 million years on record.

The record covers at least 274.4 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 283.3 Mya to 5.09 Mya.

Permian — about 12 of 251 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 251 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 251 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 251 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 251 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 4 of 251 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 14 of 251 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 143 of 251 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 31 of 251 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 251 occurrencesEocene — about 36 of 251 occurrencesOligocene — about 2 of 251 occurrencesMiocene — about 7 of 251 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 251 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 251 occurrences289–279 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences279–270 Mya — about 4 occurrences270–260 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–250 Mya — about 6 occurrences202–193 Mya — about 1 occurrence193–183 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences183–173 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences173–164 Mya — about 2 occurrences164–154 Mya — about 9 occurrences154–144 Mya — about 7 occurrences144–135 Mya — about 5 occurrences135–125 Mya — about 10 occurrences125–116 Mya — about 94 occurrences116–106 Mya — about 27 occurrences106–96 Mya — about 24 occurrences96–87 Mya — about 13 occurrences87–77 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences77–67 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences58–48 Mya — about 10 occurrences48–39 Mya — about 4 occurrences39–29 Mya — about 23 occurrences29–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–9.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.6–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences274.4 Mya7.246 Mya289 Mya0 Mya

251 occurrences of Raphidioptera on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

251 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

42 formations

Yixian — 41.83°N, 121.13°EYixian — 41.15°N, 117.96°EYixian — 41.21°N, 119.25°EYixian — 41.75°N, 120.80°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°EZaza — 53.20°N, 112.82°EFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.24°WCrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WCrato — 7.15°S, 39.72°WDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°EKarabastau — 42.69°N, 70.41°EKarabastau — 42.90°N, 70.00°EDzun-Bain — 45.45°N, 99.13°EEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WPoldarsa — 60.61°N, 45.62°ELaiyang — 36.76°N, 120.64°ELaiyang — 36.78°N, 120.67°EWeald Clay — 51.14°N, 0.33°WWeald Clay — 51.10°N, 0.45°WDurlston — 50.60°N, 1.95°WLas Penosas — 43.31°N, 4.45°WIva-Gora Beds — 65.55°N, 43.67°EGreen River — 39.46°N, 108.43°WGreen River — 39.53°N, 107.95°WGreen River — 39.51°N, 108.03°Wla Pedrera de Rubies — 42.01°N, 0.96°EJinju — 35.17°N, 128.13°ERaritan — 40.47°N, 74.32°WShahai — 41.25°N, 120.03°EKishenehn — 48.37°N, 113.67°WKlondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°WSinuiju — 40.08°N, 124.43°ELa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WLushangfen — 39.80°N, 116.08°E

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The named rock units Raphidioptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 55 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Raphidioptera and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Raphidioptera and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

4,317 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 117 sites for Raphidioptera, 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

85 references

Each of the 251 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. 73 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 Raphidioptera

Credit
Beentree
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Raphidioptera 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 itNeuropterida through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Handlirsch 1908)