The odonatan insects from the Paleocene of Menat, central France

The current knowledge on the Paleocene Odonata is rather limited despite the fact that it is a crucial period for the history of this order. An overview of the fossil odonatans from the Paleocene of Menat (France) is provided. We describe the anisopteran Macrogomphus menatensis sp. nov., first fossil representative of the family Epigomphidae, together with two zygopteran, viz. the dysagrionid Menatagrion hervetae gen. et sp. nov., and the new family Menatlestidae fam. nov., with its type species Menatlestes palaeocenicus gen. et sp. nov. The genus Menatagrion gen. nov. is the first Paleocene record of the Dysagrionidae, otherwise known by a putative Cretaceous genus and several Eocene to Miocene genera. Menatlestes gen. nov., putatively attributed to the stem-group of the Lestinoidea (Megalestidae and Lestidae), would correspond to the oldest record of this clade. With these three new taxa, and the previously described Thanetophilosina menatensis , Valerea multicellulata , “ Lestes ” zalesskyi , and an Aeshna species indet., the total number of Odonata from Menat goes up to seven species in total; two Anisoptera and five Zygoptera. Furthermore, we propose new evidences showing that the head characters defining the putative suborder Cephalozygoptera are due to deformations, very frequent among the fossil Odonatoptera. We treat the Cephalozygoptera as a junior synonym of Zygoptera.