Re: Endothermic Crocs in Nature

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> No neoflightless insects?  Every flightless pterygote is neoflightless.
> Including some in basal clades like Dermaptera, Grylloblattidae and
> Dictyoptera.  Of course, plenty of derived insects are neoflightless as 
> well
> (fleas, lice, etc.).

Well, these aren't actually "neoflightless".  They are secondary flightless, 
but "neoflightless" has a more restricted meaning: the loss of flight not 
long after the inception of flight (hence the "neo-" part).  Thus, a 
neoflightless insect (or pterygote) would be a basal pterygote species that 
lost the power of flight.  The examples you cite (Dermaptera, 
Grylloblattidae, Dictyoptera) are not basal pterygotes, but neopterans of 
various kinds.  Not even the grylloblattids could be regarded as "basal 
pterygotes", and probably not even "basal neopterans".  The only things that 
might be regarded as either basal pterygotes or close to the base of the 
Ptergota might be the fossil Palaeodictyopteroidea complex (if they antedate 
the Palaeoptera-Neoptera split, and this is doubtful) and the poorly-known 
_Rhyniagnatha_.

Here's a good ref on this topic:

Engel, M.S. and Grimaldi, D.A. (2004). New light shed on the oldest insect.  
Nature 427: 627-630.


Tim