Palaeoptera

Common card · No. 478943

The name Palaeoptera (from Greek παλαιός (palaiós 'old') + πτερόν (pterón 'wing')) has been traditionally applied to those ancestral groups of winged insects (most of them extinct) that lack the ability to fold the wings back over the abdomen as characterizes the Neoptera. The Diaphanopterodea, which are palaeopteran insects, had independently and uniquely evolved a different wing-folding mechanism. Current living palaeopteran lineages are Ephemeroptera (mayflies) and Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies).

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