''Coleopsis archaica'' is an extinct species of

stem-group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...

beetle. It is the only member of the genus ''Coleopsis'' and family Coleopsidae. It is known from a single specimen from the Early

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

(

Asselian In the geologic timescale, the Asselian is the earliest geochronologic age or lowermost chronostratigraphic stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Asselian lasted between and million years ago (Ma). It ...

) of western

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, estimated to be about 297 million years old. It is currently the oldest known beetle.

Taxonomy and systematics

While originally interpreted as a member of the family Tshekardocoleidae, this interpretation has been revised and questioned, with the most recent analyses suggesting that it is best placed in its own family, and may be the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

to all other beetles. The family name was originally published in 2016 as "Coleopsidae" but a later publication claimed that this spelling was erroneous and proposed the spelling "Coleopseidae";Kirejtshuk, A.G. Taxonomic Review of Fossil Coleopterous Families (Insecta, Coleoptera). Suborder Archostemata: Superfamilies Coleopseoidea and Cupedoidea. Geosciences 2020, 10, 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10020073 however, under the

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...

, Article 29.4, family-rank names originally published after 1999 are not subject to emendation because of incorrect spelling, so Coleopsidae would be maintained as the correct original spelling.ICZN Code
29.4. Acceptance of originally formed stem. If after 1999 a new family-group name is based on a generic name which is or ends in a Greek or Latin word or ends in a Greek or Latin suffix, but its derivation does not follow the grammatical procedures of Articles 29.3.1 or 29.3.2, its original spelling must be maintained as the correct original spelling

References

Notes

Tshekardocoleoidea † {{paleo-beetle-stub