Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #meganeuropsis, aggregated by home.social.
From the vault: my life-size Meganeuropsis model, a giant griffinfly (Meganeuridae) from the Early Permian Wellington Formation of North America. The wingspan is 71cm.
#SciArt #SciComm #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #Paleontology #Palaeontology #JurassicWorld #Meganeuropsis #Meganeura #Griffinfly #DragonFly #Permian
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...
My life-size Meganeuropsis model (2017), a giant griffinfly from the Permian, USA. With a wingspan of 71cm, it was as big (if not bigger!) as the Carboniferous Meganeura.
#Art #Painting #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #SciArt #SciComm #DigitalArt #Illustration #Dinosaurs #Birds #Reptiles #Palaeontology #Paleontology #Meganeura #Meganeuropsis #JurassicWorld #JurassicPark
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...
The last post from 2017. A life-size Meganeuropsis model, a giant griffinfly from the Permian, USA. With a wingspan of 71cm, it was as big (if not bigger!) as the Carboniferous Meganeura.
#Art #Painting #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #SciArt #SciComm #DigitalArt #Illustration #Dinosaurs #Birds #Reptiles #Palaeontology #Paleontology #Meganeura #Meganeuropsis #JurassicWorld #JurassicPark
The limits of growth are much higher than one would expect given the tracheal air sacks arrangement for bringing oxygen to the deep tissues. The fossil dragonfly Meganeuropsis permiana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odonata#Fossil_history measured 430 mm in body length with a 710 mm wing span. One can only wonder how many neurons this animal had, or whether its neurons were simply huge, like in Aplysia, which has rather very large synapses (e.g., https://www.jneurosci.org/content/8/7/2452.short ).
Today's #megafauna is #meganeuropsis, a 1.5' insect with a 2.5' wingspan that emerged ~317mya. The largest known #insect, meganeuropsis likely fed on smaller insects and amphibians. Spines on its mandibles and front legs aided hunting.
Despite its size, this giant #dragonfly still managed to fly--possibly due to the carboniferous period's more oxygen-rich atmosphere. It died out--along with 90% of then-living species--at the end of the #permian period in Earth's largest known extinction event.