''Eocorona'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of amphiesmenopteran from the Middle Triassic of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It contains only one species, ''Eocorona iani'', and is the type genus of the family Eocoronidae.

Discovery

''Eocorona iani'' was first described by the Australian

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Norman Tindale in 1980. The fossil was composed of a nearly complete forewing and a

hindwing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwi ...

tentatively interpreted as belonging to the same species. It was recovered from Mount Crosby, Queensland,

. It dates from the Carnian age (228.0 – 216.5 million years ago) of the Middle Triassic.

Taxonomy

''Eocorona iani'' is the only species in the genus ''Eocorona'' and the family Eocoronidae. Tindale originally described ''Eocorona iani'' as a butterfly (order

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

). This has been challenged by a number of other authors. Most recently, Minet ''et al.'' (2010) considered ''Eocorona'' a 'true' member of the superorder Amphiesmenoptera, neither lepidopteran (butterflies and moths) nor trichopteran (caddisflies).

References

Insects described in 1981

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species). It is one of the modern descendan ...

Prehistoric insect genera Triassic insects Prehistoric arthropods of Oceania Fossil taxa described in 1981 Amphiesmenoptera {{triassic-insect-stub

Discovery

Taxonomy

See also

References