Palaeoptera
| Palaeoptera Temporal range:Carboniferous-present
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| TheGreen Drake(Ephemera danica), amayfly(Ephemeroptera:Ephemeridae) | |
Scientific classification
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Subclass: | Pterygota |
| Division: | Palaeoptera Martynov,1923 |
| Superorders | |
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The namePalaeoptera(from Greekπαλαιός(palaiós'old') +πτερόν(pterón'wing')) has been traditionally applied to those ancestral groups ofwinged insects(most of them extinct) that lacked the ability to fold the wings back over theabdomenas characterizes theNeoptera.TheDiaphanopterodea,which are palaeopteran insects, had independently and uniquelyevolveda different wing-folding mechanism. Bothmayfliesanddragonflieslack any of the smell centers in their brain found inNeoptera.[2]
Disputed status
[edit]The complexities of the wing-folding mechanism, as well as the mechanical operation of the wings in flight (indirect flight muscles), are such that it clearly indicates the Neoptera are amonophyleticlineage. The problem is that theplesiomorphicabsence of wing-folding does not necessarily mean the Palaeoptera form a natural group – they may simply be an assemblage containing all insects, closely related or not, that "are not Neoptera", an example of awastebasket taxon. If the extinct lineages are taken into account, it seems likely that the concept of Palaeoptera will eventually be discarded or changed in content to more accurately reflect insect evolution.
In any case, three main palaeopteran lineages, traditionally treated assuperorders,are recognized. Of these, thePalaeodictyopteroideathemselves might be a paraphyletic assemblage of verybasalPterygota,too. As it stands, the relationship of the two living Paleopteran groups –Ephemeroptera(mayflies) andOdonata(dragonfliesanddamselflies) – to the Neoptera has not been resolved yet; there are three competing main hypotheses with many variations. In two of these – those that treat the ephemeropteran or the odonatan lineage as closer to the Neoptera than to the other "palaeopterans" – the Palaeoptera appear to beparaphyletic.[3]
See also
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]- ^Called Odonatoidea in some treatments, e.g. Trueman & Rowe (2008)
- ^Akpan, Nsikan (21 March 2014)."Dragonflies Lack 'Smell Center,' but Can Still Smell".Science Magazine.Retrieved4 May2021.
- ^Maddison (2002), Trueman [2008]
References
[edit]- Maddison, David R.(2002):Tree of Life Web Project–Pterygota. Winged insects.Version of 2002-JAN-01. Retrieved 2008-DEC-15.
- Trueman, John W.H.[2008]:Tree of Life Web Project–Pterygote Higher Relationships.Retrieved 2008-DEC-15.
- Trueman, John W.H. & Rowe, Richard J.(2008):Tree of Life Web Project–Odonata. Dragonflies and damselflies.Version of 2008-MAR-20. Retrieved 2008-DEC-15.
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