10.6084/m9.figshare.9356513.v1
Hongru Yang
Hongru
Yang
Xiangchu Yin
Xiangchu
Yin
Xiaodan Lin
Xiaodan
Lin
Chen Wang
Chen
Wang
Chungkun Shih
Chungkun
Shih
Weiwei Zhang
Weiwei
Zhang
Dong Ren
Dong
Ren
Taiping Gao
Taiping
Gao
Supplementary Material from Cretaceous winged stick insects clarify the early evolution of Phasmatodea
The Royal Society
2019
Pterophasmatidae
morphology
phylogeny
synapomorphy
male genitalia
2019-08-08 07:10:55
Journal contribution
https://rs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Supplementary_Material_from_Cretaceous_winged_stick_insects_clarify_the_early_evolution_of_Phasmatodea/9356513
Wingless and shorter winged stick insects are very common today, but most known extinct stick insects had fully developed wings, leading to contentious affinities among the extinct winged and extant groups. We report herein three male winged stick insects, assigned to Pterophasmatidae fam. nov., from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar (Burmese) amber. Pterophasmatidae fam. nov. are regarded as transitional taxa from extinct winged to modern wingless and shorter winged stick insects based on their similar tegmina venation with extinct Susumanioidea and some body features same as extant Phasmatodea. However, their symmetric phallic organs comprising two consistent phallomeres are different from those of all living groups. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that the extinct winged taxa, including the new family, are the stem groups of modern stick and leaf insects, and all of them constitute the clade of Phasmatodea. New findings indicate winged and wingless stick insects' morphologies diversified significantly during or before mid-Cretaceous.