Bashkirian Age
Origin of Winged Insects
The Bashkirian Stage (323–315 Ma) is the fourth age in the Carboniferous Period, occurring after the Serpukhovian age, and before the Moscovian age
Geologic Age
323.2±0.4–315.2±0.2 Ma
Eon / Era / Period / Epoch
What happens during this time?
Flora
Tropical wetlands allow for the expansion of arborescent lycopsid swamps
Tree clubmosses include Lepidophloios, Diaphorodendron,Paracyclopodites, Sigillaria
Tree-sized and shrub-sized horsetails and sphenophyllales present: Calamites and Sphenophyllum
Marattitoid tree fern (Psaronius) and early seed ferns (Medullosa).
The oldest known fossil of an actively growing root meristem; cell patterning identifies it as a gymnosperm (Hetherington et al. 2016)
The earliest known amber comes from this time, ~320 Ma, but the plant origin of the resin is unknown (Bray & Anderson 2009; Grimaldi 2009)
The molecular composition seems similar to resin from angiosperms, but the earliest evidence of angiosperms is nearly 200 million years later, in the Early Cretaceous
Fauna
Winged insects appear, with Mazothairos, an insect in an extinct order called the Palaeodictyoptera
Above: Reconstruction of Mazothairos, an early flying insect
