The oldest representative of the modern clade Aeshnodea from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, NE Brazil (Odonata: Anisoptera)

Abstract

The hawker dragonfly Primumaeshna britta gen. et sp. nov., type genus and species of the new family Primumaeshnidae, is described from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation in Brazil, corresponding to the oldest record of the clade Aeshnodea. The previously described representatives of the Aeshnoptera from this formation belonged to extinct families or to the Gomphaeschnidae. Otherwise the oldest Aeshnodea were previously only known from the Cenomanian. This new discovery confirms that the diversification of the modern lineages of hawker dragonflies occurred during the Early Cretaceous.