Saurophthirus
| Saurophthirus Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Saurophthirus laevigatus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Siphonaptera |
| Family: | †Saurophthiridae Ponomarenko, 1986 |
| Genus: | †Saurophthirus Ponomarenko, 1976 |
| Type species | |
| Saurophthirus longipes Ponomarenko, 1976
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| Other species | |
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Saurophthirus is an extinct genus of giant stem-group flea, and the only member of the family Saurophthiridae. The type species, S. longipes is found in early Cretaceous strata of Baissa, Siberia. Two other species S. exquisitus and S. laevigatus is from the Lower Cretaceous aged Yixian Formation of China.[1][2]
Description[]
Body length of largest species, S. longipes is 12 mm (0.47 in) long.[2] They are generally seen as transitional between more primitive stem-fleas such as Pseudopulicidae and Tarwinia and modern fleas.[2]
References[]
- ^ Gao, Taiping, et al. "New Transitional Fleas from China Highlighting Diversity of Early Cretaceous Ectoparasitic Insects." Current Biology 23.13 (2013): 1261-1266.
- ^ a b c Zhang, Yanjie; Shih, Chungkun; Rasnitsyn, Alexandr; Ren, Dong; Gao, Taiping (2020). "A new flea from the Early Cretaceous of China". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 65. doi:10.4202/app.00680.2019.
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Categories:
- Siphonaptera genera
- Cretaceous insects
- Transitional fossils
- Cretaceous insects of Asia
- Parasites of reptiles
- Prehistoric insect genera
- Fossil taxa described in 1976
- Cretaceous insect stubs
- Flea stubs
- Parasitic animal stubs