''Praepapilio'' 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 Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

swallowtail butterfly Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the large ...

from the middle

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

deposits of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, comparable to the

Lutetian The Lutetian is, in the geologic timescale, a stage or age in the Eocene. It spans the time between . The Lutetian is preceded by the Ypresian and is followed by the Bartonian. Together with the Bartonian it is sometimes referred to as the Midd ...

epoch in age. The genus is considered to be the only representative of the fossil

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Praepapilioninae. ''Praepapilio'' is, so far, the only wholly extinct subtaxon known within the swallowtail family. Two species have been described, each from a single fossil find.

Species

''P. colorado''

The holotype of ''P. colorado'', the type species of the genus, is from the Middle Eocene-aged Green River Shale, Parachute Creek Member, near Raydome,

. Durden and Rose, in their 1978 paper, compare ''P. colorado'' to the extant ''

Baronia brevicornis ''Baronia brevicornis'', commonly known as the short-horned baronia, is a species of butterfly in the monotypic genus ''Baronia'' and is placed in a subfamily of its own, the Baroniinae, a sister group of the remainder of the swallowtail butterf ...

'', and suggest that ''P. gracilis'' may be the same species as ''P. colorado'', and that the differences between the two are possibly due to

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

''P. gracilis''

As with ''P. colorado'', the holotype of ''P. gracilis'' was from the same site in Colorado. It differs from the type species in being smaller and more gracile in form, though anatomical differences may be due to sexual dimorphism.

References

† Fossil Lepidoptera Eocene insects Prehistoric insects of North America † {{paleo-Lepidoptera-stub