|
Steleopteron Cretacicus
''Steleopteron cretacicus'' (lat.) is a species of extinct winged damselfly from the Jurassic family Steleopteridae that lived in modern Britain during the Early Cretaceous era (136.4–130 million years ago). It is the first member of the Steleopteridae family, to be found living during the Cretaceous period, to be described, and belongs to the genus Steleopteron. There is a sister taxon – ''Steleopteron deichmuelleri''. The discovery of the species showed that the family Steleopteridae had not died out by the Cretaceous period. These damselflies were fast insectivorous predators. The species name refers to the fact that the species existed in the Cretaceous period. Holotype The holotype, NHMUK CH 879vii, a fossilized wing, was found n lagoonal sediments in the Weald formation (136.4 – 130.0 Ma) in Surrey, United Kingdom. In 2018, Daran Zheng, A. Nel, and Edmund A. Jarzembowski described the species. The specimen is stored in the Department of Earth Sciences, Museu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damselfly
Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings along the body when at rest, unlike dragonflies which hold the wings flat and away from the body. An ancient group, damselflies have existed since at least the Lower Permian, and are found on every continent except Antarctica. All damselflies are predatory insects; both nymphs and adults actively hunt and eat other insects. The nymphs are aquatic, with different species living in a variety of freshwater habitats including acidic bogs, ponds, lakes and rivers. The nymphs moult repeatedly, at the last moult climbing out of the water to undergo metamorphosis. The skin splits down the back, they emerge and inflate their wings and abdomen to gain their adult form. Their presence on a body of water indicates that it is relatively unpolluted, but the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic, Mesozoic Era and is named after the Jura Mountains, where limestone strata from the period were first identified. The start of the Jurassic was marked by the major Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, associated with the eruption of the Central Atlantic magmatic province, Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. The beginning of the Toarcian Stage started around 183 million years ago and is marked by an extinction event associated with widespread Anoxic event, oceanic anoxia, ocean acidification, and elevated temperatures likely caused by the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar, Karoo-Ferrar large igneous provinces. The end of the Jurassic, however, has no clear boundary with the Cretaceous and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steleopteridae
Steleopteridae is a family of extinct winged damselflies whose fossils have been found in modern Germany, Great Britain and Kazakhstan, and which lived at the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous (166.1–130.0 million years ago). The family was described by the Austrian paleoentomologist Anton Handlirsch in 1906 on the basis of the fossilised exoskeleton ''Steleopteron deichmuelleri''. Hence, the type genus is ''Steleopteron''. Handlirsch assigned the family to the Epiproctophora. In 2001, the family was excluded from the Epiproctophora and transferred into a suborder of winged damselflies, Zygoptera. Until 2018, it had been believed that Steleopteridae became extinct in the Jurassic, but the discovery of ''Steleopteron cretacicus'' showed that the family may have become extinct as late as the Cretaceous. They were fast flying Insectivore, insectivorous/Carnivore, carnivorous predators. According to the Fossilworks Database website, as of November 2019, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin ''creta'', "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation ''Kreide''. The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now- extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steleopteron
''Steleopteon'' is a genus of extinct winged damselflies whose fossils have been found in modern Germany, and Great Britain, and which lived at the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous (150.8 to 130 million years ago). The genus was described by the Austrian paleoentomologist Anton Handlirsch in 1906 on the basis of the fossilised exoskeleton ''Steleopteron deichmuelleri''. Until 2018, it had been believed that the genus became extinct in the Jurassic, but the discovery of ''Steleopteron cretacicus'' showed that the genus and the family may have become extinct as late as the Cretaceous. In 2001, Günther Fleck, Fleck and others transferred the family, Steleopteridae to a suborder of winged damselflies, Zygoptera. They were fast flying Insectivore, insectivorous/Carnivore, carnivorous predators. According to the Fossilworks Database website, as of November 2019, the genus includes two extinct species: *''Steleopteron cretacicus'' Zheng et al. 2018 *''Stele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steleopteron Deichmuelleri
''Steleopteron deichmuelleri'' is a species of extinct winged damselfly in the family Steleopteridae, which lived in modern Germany during the Upper Jurassic era (150.8-145 million years ago). The holotype 1903.V3 1985/4, which is a dissociated exoskeleton, was found in the Lower Tithonian sediments at Eichstatt, Solnhofen, Bavaria, Germany. The Austrian paleoentomologist Anton Handlirsch described it in 1906. The body of the holotype reaches 60 mm in length and 3 mm in width, wings – 39 mm in length and 6 mm in width. They were fast insectivorous predators. The species belongs to the extinct insect family Steleopteridae, and the genus Steleopteron ''Steleopteon'' is a genus of extinct winged damselflies whose fossils have been found in modern Germany, and Great Britain, and which lived at the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous (150.8 to 130 million years ago). The ..., and is its type species. A sister taxon is '' Steleopteron cretacicus''. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steleopteron Cretacicus Sp
''Steleopteon'' is a genus of extinct winged damselflies whose fossils have been found in modern Germany, and Great Britain, and which lived at the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous (150.8 to 130 million years ago). The genus was described by the Austrian paleoentomologist Anton Handlirsch in 1906 on the basis of the fossilised exoskeleton ''Steleopteron deichmuelleri''. Until 2018, it had been believed that the genus became extinct in the Jurassic, but the discovery of ''Steleopteron cretacicus'' showed that the genus and the family may have become extinct as late as the Cretaceous. In 2001, Fleck and others transferred the family, Steleopteridae to a suborder of winged damselflies, Zygoptera. They were fast flying insectivorous/carnivorous predators. According to the Fossilworks Database website, as of November 2019, the genus includes two extinct species: *''Steleopteron cretacicus'' Zheng et al. 2018 *''Steleopteron deichmuelleri ''Steleoptero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weald Basin
The Weald Basin () is a major topographic feature of the area that is now southern England and northern France from the Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. Its uplift in the Late Cretaceous marked the formation of the Wealden Anticline. The rock strata contain hydrocarbon deposits which have yielded coal, oil and gas. Formation The Weald Basin's formation commenced during the Carboniferous, with the rocks which are today basement deposited within a low swamp providing coals which were exploited to the north and east in Kent, but boreholes drilled in the 19th century failed to find this deposit in the area of the Weald. The Carboniferous coals may be overlain by early Triassic sediments. The sediments were uplifted and faulted within the Variscan Orogeny, with the land now occupied by the Weald Basin being a low external fold belt to the main orogeny, which was located within the present day English Channel. The remnants of the mountain belt can be seen today in Devon and Cornwall i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. With a population of approximately 1.2 million people, Surrey is the 12th-most populous county in England. The most populated town in Surrey is Woking, followed by Guildford. The county is divided into eleven districts with borough status. Between 1893 and 2020, Surrey County Council was headquartered at County Hall, Kingston-upon-Thames (now part of Greater London) but is now based at Woodhatch Place, Reigate. In the 20th century several alterations were made to Surrey's borders, with territory ceded to Greater London upon its creation and some gained from the abolition of Middlesex. Surrey is bordered by Greater London to the north east, Kent to the east, Berkshire to the north west, West Sussex to the south, East Sussex to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural History Museum, London
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. The museum is a centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a ''cathedral of nature''—both exemplified by the large ''Diplodocus'' cast that domina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterostigma
The pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata) is a group of specialized cells in the outer insect wing, wings of insects, which are often thickened or coloured, and thus stand out from other cells. It is particularly noticeable in dragonfly, dragonflies, but present also in other insect groups, such as snakefly, snakeflies, hymenopterans, and megalopterans. Purpose The pterostigma, a heavier section of the wing than nearby sections, assists in gliding. Without the pterostigmata, self-exciting vibrations known as aeroelastic flutter, flutter would set in on the wing above a certain critical speed, making gliding impossible. Tests show that with the pterostigmata, the critical gliding speed is increased 10–25% on one species of dragonfly. Pseudopterostigma Some female damselfly, damselflies in the family Calopterygidae possess a ''pseudopterostigma''. This is similar in location on the wing to a true pterostigma but is crossed by veins and is only defined by its paler colour compared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cretaceous Insects
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin ''creta'', "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation ''Kreide''. The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now- extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
