Mesopsychidae

Mesopsychidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies known from the Late Permian to Mid Cretaceous. It is part of Mesopsychoidea, a group of scorpionflies with siphonate proboscis. They are suggested to have been nectarivores, feeding off the liquid pollination drops and acting as pollinators for now extinct insect pollinated gymnosperms such as Bennettitales.

Mesopsychidae

Lin et al. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MesopsychoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 132 million years on record.

The record covers at least 254.14 Mya to 121.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 259.857 Mya to 113.2 Mya.

Permian — about 22 of 103 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 1 of 103 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 34 of 103 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 18 of 103 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 6 of 103 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 7 of 103 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 9 of 103 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 103 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous263–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–253 Mya — about 15 occurrences253–248 Mya — about 7 occurrences248–242 Mya — about 2 occurrences242–237 Mya — about 28 occurrences237–232 Mya — about 6 occurrences232–227 Mya — about 3 occurrences227–222 Mya — about 3 occurrences222–217 Mya — about 3 occurrences217–212 Mya — about 3 occurrences212–207 Mya — about 4 occurrences207–202 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences202–197 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences197–192 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences192–187 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences187–181 Mya — about 2 occurrences181–176 Mya — about 3 occurrences176–171 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences171–166 Mya — about 3 occurrences166–161 Mya — about 5 occurrences161–156 Mya — about 4 occurrences156–151 Mya — about 2 occurrences151–146 Mya — about 1 occurrence146–141 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences131–126 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 3 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 2 occurrences115–110 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences254.14 Mya121.4 Mya263 Mya110 Mya

103 occurrences of Mesopsychidae on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

103 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

29 formations

Madygen — 40.05°N, 70.21°EMadygen — 40.03°N, 70.25°EYanchang — 35.22°N, 109.03°ECroudace Bay — 32.98°S, 151.65°ECroudace Bay — 33.00°S, 151.68°EBlackstone — 27.62°S, 152.75°EDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°ESulyukta — 40.03°N, 70.50°EMolteno — 31.53°S, 28.00°EMolteno — 31.47°S, 26.83°EPoldarsa — 60.61°N, 45.62°EItat — 56.17°N, 93.17°EYixian — 41.03°N, 118.92°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EZaza — 53.30°N, 112.09°EEstcourt — 29.33°S, 30.00°EEstcourt — 29.80°S, 29.79°EJiulongshan — 41.32°N, 119.24°EJiulongshan — 40.96°N, 117.61°EKarabastau — 42.90°N, 70.00°EPotrerillos — 33.08°S, 69.11°WVokhma — 60.10°N, 45.51°EAshfield Shale — 34.09°S, 150.76°EVyazniki — 56.22°N, 42.16°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.78°N, 7.25°EProtopivka — 49.18°N, 37.05°ESharin-Gol — 45.35°N, 109.85°EPirda — 64.17°N, 101.71°EMaltsevo — 54.40°N, 87.54°EGlushkovo — 51.71°N, 116.93°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mesopsychidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mesopsychidae and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Mesopsychidae and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

2,584 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 55 sites for Mesopsychidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

45 references

Each of the 103 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 33 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Mesopsychidae

Credit
Lin et al.
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMesopsychoidea through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tillyard 1917