First Fossil Dragonfly from India

In the Indian wetland palaeoecosystem, no dragonfly has been reported from the Cenozoic sediments until now. Here, we report a well-preserved fossil dragonfly (Odonata: Anisoptera) recovered from the late Neogene sediments of the Chotanagpur plateau, Jharkhand, eastern India. It is characterized by well-preserved head, thorax and a long cylindrical abdomen with terminalia and four wings with longitudinal veins, cross-veins and characteristic small pterostigma at the apex. These significant morphological attributes reveal a close resemblance of the fossil specimen with modern dragonflies of the family Libellulidae (order: Odonata, sub-order: Anisoptera). To the best of our knowledge, there is no reliable occurrence of dragonfly in the Indian fossil record. The core distribution of the dragonfly, suggests that it thrived under a tropical, warm, humid climate during the depositional period. The fossil specimen was found associated with prolific and diversified tropical angiospermic plant remains, vertebrates and invertebrates that provided a suitable palaeoniche for the dragonfly to survive. In addition, the fossil material and associated angiospermic flora indicate the terrestrial as well as freshwater lacustrine environment in Chotanagpur plateau during the depositional period.