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:
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|---|---|
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| Saurophthirus laevigatus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| 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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Description
editBody 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
edit- ^ 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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