Systematic/Paleotology

Reign: Animalia
Phylum/Division: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Family: Corduliidae
Scientific name: Cordulia? scheuchzeri Massalongo, 1856

Geological age

Geochronology (Chronostratigraphy)

Eon (Eontema): Phanerozoic
Era (Eratema): Cenozoic
Period (System): Paleogene
Epoca (Serie): Eocene
Other chronological subdivisions : Eocene

Description: This is a fossil species very similar to the living ones. Fossil insects coming from the limestone layers of Pesciara Bolca are important for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Since ancient times they were a rarity, and because they are extremely delicate their fossilization seems incredible. Vallisneri owned some fossil insects, including some dragonflies. The name Cordulia scheuchzeri was instituted by Abraham Massalongo, a paleontologist from Verona, who dedicated the species to Scheuchzer who, in 1709, in his work Herbarium diluvianum, published a drawing depicting a fossil dragonfly he received from Vallisneri. The specimen was studied by Massalongo, who considered it very similar from to that drawn by Scheuchzer, to whom he decided to dedicate the species.

Location

Continent / Subcontinent: Europe
State: Italy
Region: Veneto
Province: Verona
Municipality: Vestenanuova
Place: Bolca

Università degli Studi di Padova, Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia

Item code: 6417C

Bibliography

• Massalongo A. B. P., 1856 - Prodromo di un'entomologia fossile del M. Bolca. Studii Paleontologici 11-21.
• Fornasiero M., Piccoli G., 2000 - "I Fossili" . In Catalogo della Mostra "La curiosità e l'ingegno. Collezionismo scientifico e metodo sperimentale a Padova nel Settecento". Pp. 146-159, Univ. degli Studi di Padova, CISMS, Padova.
• Giusberti L., Fornasiero M., Zorzin R. (2014) - The Pesciara-Monte Postale Fossil-Lagerstätte: The “minor fauna” of the laminites. Rend. Soc. Paleont. 4, 73-87.