''Meganeuropsis'' is an extinct genus of griffinfly, order Meganisoptera, known from the Early Permian

Wellington Formation The Wellington Formation is an Early Permian geologic formation in Kansas and Oklahoma. The formation's Hutchinson Salt Member is more recognized by the community than the formation itself, and the salt is still mined in central Kansas. The Well ...

of North America, and represents the largest known insect of all time. ''Meganeuropsis'' existed during the

Artinskian In the geologic timescale, the Artinskian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Artinskian likely lasted between and million years ago (Ma) according to the most recent revision of th ...

age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

of the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), 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 Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

, 290.1–283.5 mya. The genus includes two described species by Frank Morton Carpenter, fossil insect curator at the

Museum of Comparative Zoology A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

at Harvard University: ''Meganeuropsis permiana'' described in 1939 from

Elmo, Kansas Elmo is an unincorporated community in Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. Elmo is located south of Abilene at the northwest corner of K-15 and K-4. History Early history For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inh ...

. It was one of the largest known

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s that ever lived, with a reconstructed wing length of , an estimated

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

of up to , and a body length from head to tail of almost . The holotype is held in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. ''Meganeuropsis americana'', discovered in

Noble, Oklahoma Noble is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. The population was 6,481 at the 2010 census. Noble is Cleveland County's third-largest city behind Norman and Moore. History On ...

in 1940, is most probably a junior synonym of ''Meganeuropsis permiana''. It is represented by a forewing fragment long. The complete reconstructed wing had an estimated total length of , making it the largest insect wing ever found (with a resulting wing span of ). The holotype is held in the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

References

Meganisoptera Permian animals of North America Permian insects Artinskian Cisuralian life Paleontology in Kansas Paleontology in Oklahoma Fossil taxa described in 1939 {{permian-insect-stub

See also

References