''Praepapilio'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

swallowtail butterfly Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the larg ...

from the middle

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

deposits of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, comparable to the

Lutetian The Lutetian is, in the geologic timescale, a stage (stratigraphy), stage or age (geology), age in the Eocene. It spans the time between . The Lutetian is preceded by the Ypresian and is followed by the Bartonian. Together with the Bartonian it ...

epoch in age. The genus is considered to be the only representative of the fossil

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Praepapilioninae. ''Praepapilio'' is, so far, the only wholly extinct subtaxon known within the swallowtail family. Two species have been described, each from a single fossil find.

Species

''P. colorado''

The holotype of ''P. colorado'', the type species of the genus, is from the Middle Eocene-aged Green River Shale, Parachute Creek Member, near Raydome,

. Durden and Rose, in their 1978 paper, compare ''P. colorado'' to the extant '' Baronia brevicornis'', and suggest that ''P. gracilis'' may be the same species as ''P. colorado'', and that the differences between the two are possibly due to

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

''P. gracilis''

As with ''P. colorado'', the holotype of ''P. gracilis'' was from the same site in Colorado. It differs from the type species in being smaller and more gracile in form, though anatomical differences may be due to sexual dimorphism.

References

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Fossil Lepidoptera Eocene insects Prehistoric insects of North America

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