Mesuropetela koehleri

Upper Jurassic, Gernmany

(C) Günter Bechly, Böblingen, Germany

Nothomacromia sensibilis

Lower Cretaceous, Brazil

(C) Günter Bechly, Böblingen, Germany

Dragonflies are amongst the oldest species of insects to be represented today in a modern form. The photographs, curtesy of Günter Bechly of Germany. they belong to a group called Palaeoptera which probably evolved over 300 million years ago in the warm warters of the Carboniferous era. There are subtle differences between the fossilised form and representatives found today but essentially they are the same. One major difference which should not be over-looked is the size of some of the fossilised froms with wingsapns approaching 70cm! We can only guess what they ate and how they captured their food.  Stuff for the imagination I suspects but what a frightening sight to see an insect of that size on the wing! Imagine also the size and ferosity of the larval forms.  They would have been a major preditor on the warm waters of the past.

The Jurassic rocks of 146 million years ago have yealded 14 species in Britain which seem very similar to species seen today.

There are over 5300 species recorded today.  They are most abundant in the tropics where they occur from rain forests to semi-desert. But, as we can see here in Britain (and the occasional frozen wastes of Derbyshire!) their range does extend well in to the Northern Hemisphere and in to the Artic Circle.  Japan, for example, has 4 of 5 times the number of species than Britain.