The oldest ‘amphipterygid’ damselfly of tropical affinities in the Paleocene of Menat (Zygoptera: Eucaloptera)

Abstract

The new damselfly genus and species Valerea multicellulata is described from the Paleocene of Menat (France), a Lagerstatte with many fossil insects, plants and vertebrates with high paleontological value. Aquatic insects are very scarce in this outcrop, this damselfly being the fourth described Odonata. Its closest modern relatives belong to the Amphipterygidae or the Devadattidae, families with very narrow tropical extant distributions. This new fossil allows us to confirm the tropical affinities of the odonatan fauna of the Menat paleolake communities. It also shows that the amphipterygids were clearly more widespread during the Paleogene than today, probably in relation to the worldwide warm and equable climate in the Paleocene.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3F631097-DE0B-40FA8227-9C12F55DBAB4

Keywords:

• Odonata
• Zygoptera
• Amphipterygoidea
• gen. et sp. nov.
• Paleocene
• palaeoclimate

Acknowledgements

We thank a lot two anonymous referees for the useful comments on the first version of this paper. We also sincerely thank Mme Leygnac Mathilde, head of the ‘EHPAD du Pays de Menat, Les Chaumettes’, for her kind help during the collecting of the material. Thanks also to Sylvain Pont (MNHN) for the ESEM and the EDS-SEM analysis.