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Palaeozoic giant dragonfies were hawker predators
Nel, Andre Prokop, Jakub Pecharova, Martina Engel, Michael S. Garrouste, Romain
Nel, Andre
Prokop, Jakub
Pecharova, Martina
Engel, Michael S.
Garrouste, Romain
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Abstract
The largest insects to have ever lived were the giant meganeurids of the Late Palaeozoic, ancient
stem relatives of our modern dragonfies. With wingspans up to 71cm, these iconic insects have been
the subject of varied documentaries on Palaeozoic life, depicting them as patrolling for prey through
coal swamp forests amid giant lycopsids, and cordaites. Such reconstructions are speculative as few
defnitive details of giant dragonfy biology are known. Most specimens of giant dragonfies are known
from wings or isolated elements, but Meganeurites gracilipes preserves critical body structures, most
notably those of the head. Here we show that it is unlikely it thrived in densely forested environments
where its elongate wings would have become easily damaged. Instead, the species lived in more
open habitats and possessed greatly enlarged compound eyes. These were dorsally hypertrophied, a
specialization for long-distance vision above the animal in fight, a trait convergent with modern hawker
dragonfies. Sturdy mandibles with acute teeth, strong spines on tibiae and tarsi, and a pronounced
thoracic skewness are identical to those specializations used by dragonfies in capturing prey while
in fight. The Palaeozoic Odonatoptera thus exhibited considerable morphological specializations
associated with behaviours attributable to ‘hawkers’ or ‘perchers’ among extant Odonata.
Description
Date
2018-08-14
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Elsevier
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Keywords
Palaeontology, Palaeoecology
Citation
Nel, A., Prokop, J., Pecharová, M. et al. Palaeozoic giant dragonflies were hawker predators. Sci Rep 8, 12141 (2018) doi:10.1038/s41598-018-30629-w