Saurophthirus

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 are from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China.[1][2]

Saurophthirus
Temporal range:
Saurophthirus laevigatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Siphonaptera
Family: †Saurophthiridae
Ponomarenko, 1986
Genus: †Saurophthirus
Ponomarenko, 1976
Type species
Saurophthirus longipes
Ponomarenko, 1976
Other species
  • S. exquisitus Gao, Shih, Rasnitsyn, and Ren, 2013
  • S. laevigatus Zhang, Shih, Rasnitsyn, and Gao, 2020

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
  1. Gao, Taiping, et al. "New Transitional Fleas from China Highlighting Diversity of Early Cretaceous Ectoparasitic Insects." Current Biology 23.13 (2013): 1261-1266.
  2. 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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