The Odonatoptera of the Late Permian Lodève Basin (Insecta)

The discovery of numerous and very diverse Odonatoptera in the Red Late Permian Lodève Basin questions its current reconstructions of a dry to very dry palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment. It rather suggests the presence of more or less permanent water bodies, surrounded by a diversity of terrestrial biotas. The discovery of large to very large Meganeuridae contradicts the alleged relations between the decrease of body and wing sizes of the insects during the late Permian as a direct consequence of the decrease of the oxygen atmospheric concentrations at that time.