Odonatoptera

Odonatoptera; Temporal range: Late Carboniferous - Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Reconstruction of Carboniferous odonapteran Meganeurites (Meganeuridae, Meganisoptera)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Division:	Palaeoptera
Superorder:	Odonatoptera; Lameere, 1900
Orders
	See text
Synonyms
	Campylopterodea Rohdendorf, 1962; Odonatoidea Lameere, 1936

The Odonatoptera are a superorder (sometimes treated as an order) of ancient winged insects, placed in the probably paraphyletic group Palaeoptera. The dragonflies and damselflies (which are placed in the subgroup Odonata) are the only living members of this group, which was far more diverse in the late Paleozoic and contained gigantic species, including the griffinflies (colloquially called "giant dragonflies", although they were not dragonflies in the strict sense) of the order Meganisoptera (formerly Protodonata). This lineage dates back at least to the Bashkirian, not quite 320 million years ago. ^[2]

Systematics and taxonomy

There is little consensus about the relationships of the Odonatoptera. What is certain is that they are a clade of winged insects that stands outside the Neoptera. But various authors' analyses have yielded any one of three mutually exclusive phylogenies, or some variant thereof: The least problematic (in a taxonomic sense) view is that the Odonatoptera are the sister taxon of the Ephemeropteroidea (the mayfly lineage), and that the Palaeodictyopteroidea are either their sister taxon or a basal assemblage, all within a monophyletic Palaeoptera. But few recent analyses have supported this. Rather, it seems more and more likely that the Odonatoptera are the sister taxon of the Neoptera, making the "Palaeoptera" paraphyletic. The third view places the mayfly lineage as sister taxon of the neopterans, with the Odonatoptera as most primitive winged insects; it has seen little support in recent decades however.^[3]^[4]

Phylogeny

Based on the work of Günter Bechly,^[5] Nel et al. (2001)^[6] and Petrulevičius & Gutierrez (2016).^[7]

Odonatoptera

Palaeodonatoptera

Plesiodonatoptera

Apodonatoptera

Neodonataptera

†Eomeganisoptera (†Erasipteridae)

Euodonatoptera

†Meganisoptera (griffinflies)

Odonatoclada

?†Lapeyriidae

Nodialata

Pandiscoidalia

Discoidalia

Stigmoptera

†Protozygoptera (including Archizygoptera)

Panodonata

Tarsophlebioptera

†Tarsophlebiidae

Odonata

Zygoptera (damselfly)

Epiprocta

	Epiophlebioptera

	Anisoptera (dragonfly)

In some treatments, the Odonata are expanded to include all these taxa with the exception of the "Erasipteridae", Geroptera and Protodonata; this group is treated as an unranked clade Odonatoclada in the scheme used here. Where the Odonata are defined loosely, the term Odonatoidea is used instead of "Odonatoptera" (see e.g. ^[2]).

Cladogram of Odonatoptera including Odonata by Deregnaucourt et al. 2023.^[8]

Odonatoptera (Odonata sensu lato)

†Meganisoptera

†Protanisoptera