| Petaluridae | |
|---|---|
| |
| Tanypteryx pryeri | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Odonata |
| Infraorder: | Anisoptera |
| Superfamily: | Petaluroidea |
| Family: | Petaluridae Needham, 1903 |
| Genera | |
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The petaltails of the family Petaluridae are among the most ancient of the extant true dragonflies (infraorder Anisoptera), having fossil members from as early as the Jurassic, over 150 million years ago. A 2024 molecular phylogeny found that the petaltails comprise two clades, a Gondwanan clade and a Laurasian clade. Their divergence time was estimated at 160 million years ago.
Modern petalurids include only 11 species, one of which, the Australian Petalura ingentissima, is by some measurements the largest of living dragonflies, having a wingspan of up to about 160 mm (6.3 in) and a body length of about 125 mm (4.9 in) (Tetracanthagyna plagiata of another family can match or exceed its wingspan). Another large Australian species is Petalura gigantea, commonly known as the giant dragonfly. In the United States, two species are found, Tanypteryx hageni in the west and Tachopteryx thoreyi in the east. The larvae live primarily in stream banks, mostly in burrows, but the larvae of the eastern US species, Tachopteryx thoreyi, the gray petaltail, live in depressions under wet leaves. The semiaquatic habitat of the larvae makes the petaltails unique in the modern dragonfly families.
References
- Dijkstra, K.D.B.; et al. (2013). "The classification and diversity of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata). In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness (Addenda 2013)". Zootaxa. 3703 (1): 36–45. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3703.1.9. hdl:10072/61365.
- Kohli, M., Letsch, H., Greve, C., Béthoux, O., Deregnaucourt, I., Liu, S., Zhou, X., Donath, A., Mayer, C., Podsiadlowski, L., Gunkel, S., Machida, R., Niehuis, O., Rust, J., Wappler, T., Yu, X., Misof, B., & Ware, J. (2021). Evolutionary history and divergence times of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) revealed through transcriptomics. IScience, 24(11), 103324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103324
- Tolman, Ethan R.; Beatty, Christopher D.; Kohli, Manpreet K.; Abbott, John; Bybee, Seth M.; Frandsen, Paul B.; Stephen Gosnell, J.; Guralnick, Robert; Kalkman, V. J.; Newton, Lacie G.; Suvorov, Anton; Ware, Jessica L. (2024-11-01). "A molecular phylogeny of the Petaluridae (Odonata: Anisoptera): A 160-Million-Year-Old story of drift and extinction". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 200: 108185. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2024.108185. ISSN 1055-7903.
- Paulson, Dennis R. (2009). Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12281-6.
- Silsby, Jill. 2001. Dragonflies of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.
- Martin Schorr; Martin Lindeboom; Dennis Paulson. "World Odonata List". University of Puget Sound. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
| Taxon identifiers | |
|---|---|
| Petaluridae |
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| Petaluroidea | |