News - 202-million-year-old dragonfly fossil discovered in UK

A 202-million-year-old damsel-dragonfly fossil has been unearthed in the UK. The respective paper was published in the journal Historical Biology, Sci News reports. The new find suggests that Liassophlebiidae—a small extinct family of damsel-dragonflies known from the Early Mesozoic of Europe, Asia, and Antarctica—arose in the immediate aftermath of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction. Damselflies and dragonflies comprise the insect superorder Odonatoptera, one of the oldest groups of winged insects. The earliest records of their occurrence are from the Serpukhovian age of the Carboniferous period. The Carboniferous Odonatoptera include the well-known, large proto-odonates known as griffenflies that had the largest wingspan (c. 71 cm, or 28 inches) of all the insects that have ever lived. The Triassic was a pivotal period for Odonatoptera lineages, with the diversification of the three groups ‘Protozygoptera,’ Triadophlebiomorpha, and crown Odonata. One of the earliest Odonata lineages, Liassophlebiidae, is a small extinct family of damsel-dragonflies known from the early Mesozoic of Western Europe, Central Asia, and Antarctica. First described in 1925, the family is currently represented by the following five genera: Bavarophlebia, Ferganophlebia, Grimmenopteron, Rossiphlebia, and Liassophlebia. The new specimen of Liassophlebiidae is an incomplete forewing about 4.2 cm (1.7 inches) long and 1 cm (0.4 inches) wide. The fossil dates back 202 million years to the very latest part of the Rhaetian age of the Triassic period and likely represents a new species of the Liassophlebia genus.