Ecomorphological diversification of the Late Palaeozoic Palaeodictyopterida reveals different larval strategies and amphibious lifestyle in adults
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Issue Date
2019-09-04Author
Prokop, Jakub
Krzemińska, Ewa
Krzemiński, Wiesław
Rosová, Kateřina
Pecharová, Martina
Nel, André
Engel, Michael S.
Publisher
The Royal Society
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Rights
© 2019 The Authors.
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The Late Palaeozoic insect superorder Palaeodictyopterida exhibits a remarkable disparity of larval ecomorphotypes, enabling these animals to occupy diverse ecological niches. The widely accepted hypothesis presumed that their immature stages only occupied terrestrial habitats, although authors more than a century ago hypothesized they had specializations for amphibious or even aquatic life histories. Here, we show that different species had a disparity of semiaquatic or aquatic specializations in larvae and even the supposed retention of abdominal tracheal gills by some adults. While a majority of mature larvae in Palaeodictyoptera lack unambiguous lateral tracheal gills, some recently discovered early instars had terminal appendages with prominent lateral lamellae like in living damselflies, allowing support in locomotion along with respiratory function. These results demonstrate that some species of Palaeodictyopterida had aquatic or semiaquatic larvae during at least a brief period of their post-embryonic development. The retention of functional gills or gill sockets by adults indicates their amphibious lifestyle and habitats tightly connected with a water environment as is analogously known for some modern Ephemeroptera or Plecoptera. Our study refutes an entirely terrestrial lifestyle for all representatives of the early diverging pterygote group of Palaeodictyopterida, a greatly varied and diverse lineage which probably encompassed many different biologies and life histories.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Citation
Prokop, J., Krzemińska, E., Krzemiński, W., Rosová, K., Pecharová, M., Nel, A., & Engel, M. S. (2019). Ecomorphological diversification of the Late Palaeozoic Palaeodictyopterida reveals different larval strategies and amphibious lifestyle in adults. Royal Society open science, 6(9), 190460. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190460
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