Paleontologists at Simon Fraser University in Canada have found that fossil insects that were erroneously classified as Homoptera dragonflies for 150 years are actually a completely new, previously unknown group of arthropods. The main difference between them lies in the shape of the head. This is reported in an article published in the Zootaxa magazine.
Homoptera dragonflies have short, wide heads with round large eyes on the sides, however, fossil insects’ heads were more elongated forward and had relatively small eyes that did not protrude so much to the sides. Previously, it was assumed that the differences were false and caused by deformation during the formation of fossils. The new group is related to the Homoptera dragonflies and has been identified as a suborder Cephalozygoptera.
The oldest known species, Cephalozygoptera, lived during the Cretaceous Dinosaur era in China, and younger fossils found in France and Spain are around 10 million years old. They played an important role in maintaining wetland food webs in ancient British Columbia in Canada and Washington State in the United States, scientists say. The reason for their extinction remains a mystery.