See text The Protorthoptera are an extinct order of Palaeozoic insects, and represent a wastebasket taxon and paraphyletic assemblage of basal neoptera[citation needed].

They appear during the Middle Carboniferous (late Serpukhovian or early Bashkirian), making them among the earliest known winged insects in the fossil record.

Pronotal lobes may be expanded to form a shield.

The group includes the ancestors of all other polyneopterous insects.

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