''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 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 J ...

and the beginning of the

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 th ...

(150.8 to 130 million years ago). Steleopteron deichmuelleri

The genus was described by the Austrian paleoentomologist

Anton Handlirsch Anton Handlirsch or Anton Peter Josef Handlirsch (20 January 1865, Vienna – 28 August 1935, Vienna) was an Austrian entomologist. He worked on many groups including Hemiptera, Hymenoptera and Neuroptera. His most significant work was in the stu ...

in 1906 on the basis of the fossilised exoskeleton ''

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 ...

''. Until 2018, it had been believed that the genus became extinct in the

, but the discovery of ''

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 St ...

'' showed that the genus and the family may have become extinct as late as the

. In 2001, Fleck and others transferred the family,

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 ...

to a suborder of winged damselflies, Zygoptera. They were fast flying

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

predators. According to the Fossilworks Database website, as of November 2019, the genus includes two extinct species: *''

'' Zheng et al. 2018 *''

'' Handlirsch, 1906

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q60973338 Prehistoric insect genera Zygoptera genera Damselflies of Europe