Abstract. The earliest termite of the extant genus Mastotermes, is herein recorded in the Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) transitional beds of Chernovskie Kopi in Transbaikalian Russia along with Santonitermes of an uncertain family. These records represent the earliest eusocial organisms. No termites have ever been recorded among the hundreds of thousands of fossil insects in the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary Beds of China and Mongolia or in prior time periods. Both genera indicate that the early termites survived for an extremely long period of time. The present find both provides evidence of the greatest ghost range (60 Mya) of any winged stem cockroach family and indicates that the origin of termites and evolution of eusociality occurred later than the Middle Jurassic.
Early Kazanian of Arkhangelsk Reg.) belongs to Tillyardembiidae and so needs little general discussion beyond the statement that the family has survived in the Middle Permian and extended its geographic range to what is now the northern European Russia. The other fossil at hand, Permeoblatta borealis gen. et sp.n. (Figs 2830) from the Late Permian locality Isady (Severodvinian stage of Vologda Reg., northern European Russia) is much more unusual, firstly because it extends the time range of the order well into the Late Permian. Secondly, whilst Tillyardembiidae is a taxon distinctly apomorphic in respect to the main Carboniferous body of the order, the fossil in question looks alike these ancient forms thus making its so late record as completely unexpected. As a result, this find needs more diversified comparison to be properly described. This is not an easy task, particularly because the structure and limits of the order Eoblattida are far from being well understood [Rasnitsyn & Quicke, 2002; Aristov & Rasnitsyn, 2009]. Following the refined traditional approach to taxonomy [called phyletics: Rasnitsyn, 2006], we start our attempt to define structure of the order with identification of its core components. The type genus Eoblatta Handlirsch, 1906 (Fig. 1) is the unquestionable centre surrounded with the similar and putatively closely related taxa including
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