Meganeuropsis

Meganeuropsis, from Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas), meaning "large", νεῦρον (neûron), meaning "nerve", and ὄψις (ópsis), meaning "appearance", was an extinct genus of griffenfly, order Meganisoptera. It lived during the Early Permian Wellington Formation of North America and is known as the largest insect that ever existed. This amazing creature lived during the Artinskian age of the Permian period, between 290.1 and 283.5 mya.

Scientists first described Meganeuropsis in the 1930s and 1940s. One species, Meganeuropsis permiana, was found in Elmo, Kansas. It had a wing length of about 330 millimetres (13 inches) and an estimated wingspan of up to 710 millimetres (28 inches). Another species, Meganeuropsis americana, discovered in Noble, Oklahoma in 1940, may actually be the same as M. permiana. Its wing fragment measured 280 millimetres (11 inches) long, and scientists think the full wing would have been about 305 millimetres (12 inches) long.

These huge insects lived millions of years ago, and their size gives us clues about the ancient world. Fossils of Meganeuropsis are kept in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, where experts like Frank Morton Carpenter studied them. Finding such large insects helps scientists understand how life was different in the distant past.