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30-535: See text The Stephanidae , sometimes called crown wasps , are a family of parasitoid wasps . They are the only living members of the superfamily Stephanoidea . Stephanidae has at least 345 living species in 11 genera . The family is considered cosmopolitan in distribution, with the highest species concentrations in subtropical and moderate climate zones. Stephanidae also contain four extinct genera described from both compression fossils and inclusions in amber . Stephanids are noted for their ocellar corona,

60-554: A lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community for extended periods. The continual publication of new data and diverse opinions plays a crucial role in facilitating adjustments and ultimately reaching a consensus over time. The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes: The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called

90-631: A northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and Antarctica seem to have remained connected and began to drift away from Africa and South America. Europe was an island chain. Populating some of these islands were endemic dwarf dinosaur species. In the Late Cretaceous, the hadrosaurs , ankylosaurs , and ceratopsians experienced success in Asiamerica (Western North America and eastern Asia). Tyrannosaurs dominated

120-403: A semicircular to circular set of projections around the middle ocellus , forming a "crown" on the head. Only stephanids and the similarly old Hymenoptera family Orussidae have ocellar coronae, and it is uncertain if they developed the structure separately or if a common ancestor of both developed it and it was then lost in all but the two families. Weakly developed grooves starting at the base of

150-432: A tip end that widens distinctly. The largest species, reaching up to 35 mm (1.4 in) in length, are found in the genus Megischus . Stephanids are noted as parasitoids of xylophagous beetle larvae , with a majority of the stephanids hosts coming from the families Cerambycidae and Buprestidae , though some Curculionidae and occasional hymenopteran hosts are taken. One species, Schlettererius cinctipes ,

180-536: A very different dinosaurian fauna, with most predators being abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids ; and titanosaurs being among the dominant herbivores. Spinosaurids were also present during this time. Birds became increasingly common, diversifying in a variety of enantiornithe and ornithurine forms. Early Neornithes such as Vegavis co-existed with forms as bizarre as Yungavolucris and Avisaurus . Though mostly small, marine Hesperornithes became relatively large and flightless, adapted to life in

210-468: Is a known parasitoid of horntail wasps and has been introduced to Tasmania as a biological pest control agent. Members of the genus Foenatopus are parasitoids of Agrilus sexsignatus , wood-boring beetle larvae found infesting eucalyptus in the Philippines . The rate of parasitism for an A. sexsignatus population was recorded to vary from only 2% up to 50% of the population. The family

240-682: Is also the youngest fossil found, dating from the Late Eocene Florissant Formation . All other extinct species in the family are known from fossils preserved in Baltic amber . Based on the fossil record of the family, Li et al. (2017) infer that the family originated during the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous . Taxonomy of the family as outlined by Michael S. Engel and Jaime Ortega-Blanco in 2011: Family (biology) Family ( Latin : familia , pl. : familiae )

270-499: Is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family— or whether a described family should be acknowledged— is established and decided upon by active taxonomists . There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to

300-474: Is it particularly evident that a true systematic decline was ever in place, especially with the discovery of smaller pterosaur species. Several old mammal groups began to disappear, with the last eutriconodonts occurring in the Campanian of North America . In the northern hemisphere, cimolodont , multituberculates , metatherians and eutherians were the dominant mammals, with the former two groups being

330-416: Is noted to be the most basal group of hymenopterans in the suborder Apocrita . They are the only living group left over from the early diversification of Apocrita. In general, the family is considered rare, with close to 95% of the species known to have been described from single specimens. Until the early 1800s, members of Stephanidae were grouped into the parasitic wasp superfamily Ichneumonoidea based on

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360-480: Is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy . It is classified between order and genus . A family may be divided into subfamilies , which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae , but that family

390-464: The Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family. Families serve as valuable units for evolutionary, paleontological, and genetic studies due to their relatively greater stability compared to lower taxonomic levels like genera and species. Late Cretaceous During the Late Cretaceous, the climate

420-522: The Late Cretaceous ( Cenomanian ) Burmese amber . Other early member of the family is the monotypic genus Archaeostephanus , which is known from a single species Archaeostephanus corae found in the late Cretaceous New Jersey amber and first described in 2004. The first species to be described from the fossil record was Protostephanus ashmeadi , which was first published in 1906 by paleoentomologist Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell . The specimen

450-813: The Cretaceous Period derived from the German name Kreidezeit , and T is the abbreviation for the Tertiary Period (a historical term for the period of time now covered by the Paleogene and Neogene periods). The event marks the end of the Mesozoic Era and the beginning of the Cenozoic Era. "Tertiary" being no longer recognized as a formal time or rock unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy ,

480-847: The K-T event is now called the Cretaceous—Paleogene (or K-Pg) extinction event by many researchers. Non- avian dinosaur fossils are found only below the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary and became extinct immediately before or during the event. A very small number of dinosaur fossils have been found above the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, but they have been explained as reworked fossils , that is, fossils that have been eroded from their original locations then preserved in later sedimentary layers. Mosasaurs , plesiosaurs , pterosaurs and many species of plants and invertebrates also became extinct. Mammalian and bird clades passed through

510-403: The antennae and extending past the eyes to the back of the head capsule are present. This feature is seen more developed in hymenopteran families in which the adults emerge from pupal chambers in wood. All genera of Stephanidae have a pronotum that is modified to some extent. They bear highly modified hind legs, with a swollen hind femur that has large teeth on the underside, and the tibiae have

540-519: The boundary with few extinctions, and evolutionary radiation from those Maastrichtian clades occurred well past the boundary. Rates of extinction and radiation varied across different clades of organisms. Many scientists hypothesize that the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinctions were caused by catastrophic events such as the massive asteroid impact that caused the Chicxulub crater , in combination with increased volcanic activity , such as that recorded in

570-530: The family as a rank intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods ). In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and

600-646: The large predator niche in North America. They were also present in Asia, although were usually smaller and more primitive than the North American varieties. Pachycephalosaurs were also present in both North America and Asia. Dromaeosaurids shared the same geographical distribution, and are well documented in both Mongolia and Western North America. Additionally therizinosaurs (known previously as segnosaurs) appear to have been in North America and Asia. Gondwana held

630-636: The most common mammals in North America. In the southern hemisphere there was instead a more complex fauna of dryolestoids , gondwanatheres and other multituberculates and basal eutherians ; monotremes were presumably present, as was the last of the haramiyidans , Avashishta . Mammals, though generally small, ranged into a variety of ecological niches, from carnivores ( Deltatheroida ), to mollusc-eater ( Stagodontidae ), to herbivores (multituberculates, Schowalteria , Zhelestidae and Mesungulatidae ) to highly atypical cursorial forms ( Zalambdalestidae , Brandoniidae ). True placentals evolved only at

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660-531: The numerous teleost fishes, which in turn evolved into new advanced and modern forms ( Neoteleostei ). Ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs , on the other hand, became extinct during the Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event . Near the end of the Cretaceous Period, flowering plants diversified. In temperate regions, familiar plants like magnolias , sassafras , roses , redwoods , and willows could be found in abundance. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event

690-407: The open sea. Though primarily represented by azhdarchids , other forms like pteranodontids , tapejarids ( Caiuajara and Bakonydraco ), nyctosaurids and uncertain forms ( Piksi , Navajodactylus ) are also present. Historically, it has been assumed that pterosaurs were in decline due to competition with birds, but it appears that neither group overlapped significantly ecologically, nor

720-516: The proposed family "Stenophasmidae". The latter group was moved out of Stephanoidea in 1969 by Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn , who transferred the "Stenophasmidae" to the family Braconidae and synonymized the two families. Fossil specimens related to the family are uncommon, and most are dated to the Tertiary . The oldest confirmed members of the family are Kronostephanus zigrasi , Lagenostephanus lii , and Phoriostephanus exilis all known from

750-567: The seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families ( familiae ). The concept of rank at that time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera , which is far from how the term is used today. In his work Philosophia Botanica published in 1751, Carl Linnaeus employed the term familia to categorize significant plant groups such as trees , herbs , ferns , palms , and so on. Notably, he restricted

780-422: The superficial resemblance between some members of the two groups. William Elford Leach suggested a new family grouping for the stephanids in the 1815 edition of Edinburgh Encyclopædia . The name Stephanidae was first published by Alexander Henry Haliday in his 1839 Hymenoptera Britannica . About 110 years later, the stephanids were placed into a separate superfamily, Stephanoidea, by P.L.G. Benoit, along with

810-541: The use of this term solely within the book's morphological section, where he delved into discussions regarding the vegetative and generative aspects of plants. Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis ). In zoology ,

840-433: The very end of the epoch; the same can be said for true marsupials . Instead, nearly all known eutherian and metatherian fossils belong to other groups. In the seas, mosasaurs suddenly appeared and underwent a spectacular evolutionary radiation. Modern sharks also appeared and penguin-like polycotylid plesiosaurs (3 meters long) and huge long-necked elasmosaurs (13 meters long) also diversified. These predators fed on

870-537: Was a large-scale mass extinction of animal and plant species in a geologically short period of time, approximately 66  million years ago (Ma). It is widely known as the K–T extinction event and is associated with a geological signature, usually a thin band dated to that time and found in various parts of the world, known as the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–T boundary). K is the traditional abbreviation for

900-572: Was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Due to plate tectonics , the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia . India maintained

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