Odonatoptera

Odonatoptera Temporal range: Late Carboniferous - Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Reconstruction of Carboniferous griffinfly, Meganeurites.
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Division:	Palaeoptera
Superorder:	Odonatoptera Martynov, 1932
Orders
See text
Synonyms
Campylopterodea Rohdendorf, 1962 Odonatoidea Lameere, 1936

The Odonatoptera are a superorder (sometimes treated as an order) of ancient winged insects, placed in the probably paraphyletic group Palaeoptera. The dragonflies and damselflies are the only living members of this group, which was far more diverse in the late Paleozoic and contained gigantic species, including the griffinflies (colloquially called "giant dragonflies", although they were not dragonflies in the strict sense) of the order Meganisoptera (formerly Protodonata). This lineage dates back at least to the Bashkirian, not quite 320 million years ago. ^[1]