Giant dragonflies and their way of life – reconstruction based on fossil findings
The maximum wingspan of dragonflies these days is about 19 cm, but in the Late Palaeozoic (approximately 300 Mya), the largest representatives of the Meganeuridae family had a wingspan of about 71 cm. They were thus the largest known insects ever and previously there were already some hypotheses, based on (unfortunately often incomplete) fossil findings and on comparisons with modern-day species, about how these flying colossuses lived. However, an international French-Czech-US team, together with Jakub Prokop and Martina Pecharová from the Department of Zoology of the Faculty of Science, showed that these speculations were not correct and proposed a more probable scenario.
- Giant dragonflies and their way of life – reconstruction based on fossil findings
- Model of the revised dragonfly species Meganeurites gracilipes in comparison with a human hand. Photo: Petr Šípek.
- Popular Science: Giant dragonflies and their way of life – reconstruction based on fossil findings
- The maximum wingspan of dragonflies these days is about 19 cm, but in the Late Palaeozoic (approximately 300 Mya), the largest representatives of the Meganeuridae family had a wingspan of about 71 cm. They were thus the largest known insects ever and previously there were already some hypotheses, based on (unfortunately often incomplete) fossil findings and on comparisons with modern-day species, about how these flying colossuses lived. However, an international French-Czech-US team, together with Jakub Prokop and Martina Pecharová from the Department of Zoology of the Faculty of Science, showed that these speculations were not correct and proposed a more probable scenario.
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