At last, a Pennsylvanian stem-stonefly (Plecoptera) discovered

BackgroundStem-relatives of many winged insect orders have been identified among Pennsylvanian fossils (Carboniferous Period). Owing to their presumed 'basal' position in insect phylogeny, stoneflies were expected to occur at this period. However, no relative has ever been designated convincingly.ResultsIn this paper, we report specimens belonging to a new fossil insect species collected from the Tupo Formation (Pennsylvanian; China). The wing venation of Gulou carpenterigen. et sp. nov. exhibits character states diagnostic of the order Plecoptera, but lack character states shared by unequivocal representatives of the order. Derived from this identification, the delimitation of the fossil species is ascertained based on comparison of several extant stonefly species. This comparative analysis allowed a trait present in G. carpenterigen. et sp. nov., but rarely occurring in extant species, to be documented and highlighted as atavistic. Affinities of taxa formerly proposed as putative stem-stoneflies are reconsidered in the light of the new discovery.ConclusionsGulou carpenterigen. et sp. nov. is considered the only genuine Plecoptera reported from the Pennsylvanian. Continuing efforts on the systematics of Pennsylvanian winged insects indicate a fauna more diverse than previously appreciated. It suggests that insects already had a long, yet undocumented, history by this time.

• Publication year

  2011

• Venue

  BMC Evolutionary Biology

• Publication date

  2011-08-31

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Geology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1186/1471-2148-11-248PMID 21880126PMCID 3225047
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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