Cascoplecia

Cascoplecia insolitis, commonly known as the unicorn fly,[1] is an extinct dipteran that lived in the Early Cretaceous. The type specimen was found in Burmese amber.[1] George Poinar, Jr., who described this fossil, coined a new family name for it – Cascopleciidae. One of the defining characteristics of Cascoplecia is the presence of three ocelli raised on an extended, horn-like protuberance (hence its common name). Its distinctiveness has been questioned by other authors, who suggest that the taxon is simply an aberrant member of the Bibionidae.[2]

reconstruction

Cascoplecia
Temporal range: Late Aptian to Early Cenomanian
holotype fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Diptera
Infraorder:
Bibionomorpha
Family:
† Cascopleciidae

Poinar Jr., 2010
Genus:
†Cascoplecia

Poinar Jr., 2010
Species:
†C. insolitis
Binomial name
†Cascoplecia insolitis
Poinar Jr., 2010

References
  1. Poinar Jr., George (2010). "Cascoplecia insolitis (Diptera: Cascopleciidae), a new family, genus, and species of flower-visiting, unicorn fly (Bibionomorpha) in Early Cretaceous Burmese amber". Cretaceous Research. 31 (1): 71–76. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2009.09.007.
  2. Thomas Pape, Vladimir Blagoderov & Mikhail B. Mostovski. 2011 Order DIPTERA Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.