The oldest Australian mayfly (Insecta, Ephemerida) from the Middle Triassic at Brookvale, New South Wales

The fossil record of mayflies in Australia has been restricted to two localities, the oldest being of Cretaceous age. Here, we describe a new fossil mayfly nymph, Warungata peterjelli gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) Hawkesbury Sandstone at the Beacon Hill quarry in Brookvale, Sydney, Australia. This finding shifts the age of documented mayfly occurrences in Australia back to the early Mesozoic. Warungata peterjelli is attributed to Ephemerida based mainly on the presence of wing pads with visible developing ephemeroid venation. Although the preservation of W. peterjelli does not allow a precise phylogenetic placement of the taxon, it does exhibit some affinity with stem-group mayflies based on its well-developed metathorax, which resembles Palaeozoic lineages with homonomous wing pairs. https://zoobank.org/3C5EF6DE-9424-47EE-8D2A-B8E591A225EA