Revision of the enigmatic insect family Anthracoptilidae enlightens the evolution of Palaeozoic stem-dictyopterans

The position of the Palaeozoic Anthracoptilidae has been a major problem of insect systematics for over a century. The previous hypotheses suggested affinities of Anthracoptilidae with the Palaeodictyopteroida, Protorthoptera, Hypoperlida, stem-Mantodea, Paraneoptera, Holometabola, or Eoblattida. Herein we put forward a new hypothesis based mainly on a comprehensive re-evaluation of the wing venation characters and re-examination of the type...