Coptoclavidae is an extinct family of aquatic beetles in the suborder Adephaga.[1][2] The Coptoclavidae lived from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous.[3] Coptoclavidae is a member of the adephagan clade Dytiscoidea,[4][5][6] which contains other aquatic beetles. Suggested reasons for their extinction to include the rise of teleost fish, or competition with Gyrinidae and Dytiscidae, which possess defensive secretions and sucking channels in the mandibles of larvae, which coptoclavids likely lacked. It has been suggested that the genus Timarchopsis and the subfamily Timarchopsinae are only distantly related to other coptoclavids based on cladistic analysis, with Timarchopsis being more closely related to geadephagans like carabids and trachypachids instead.[7] Another study also suggested similarly for Coptoclavisca and possibly other coptoclaviscines.[8]
^Tree of Life Web Project. 1995. Liadytidae. Liadytes. Version 1 January 1995 (temporary). [1].01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, [2]
^Ivan Löbl & Aleš Smetana (May 2003). "1". Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera: Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga. Vol. 1. Apollo Books. pp. 6–8. ISBN978-87-88757-73-6.
^Ponomarenko, A. G., Arnoldy, L., Jerikin, V. V., & Nikritin, L. M. (1992). Mesozoic Coleoptera. Suborder Adephaga, 1.
^Wang, B.; Ponomarenko, A. G.; Zhang, H. -Ch. (15 December 2009). "A new coptoclavid larva (Coleoptera: Adephaga: Dytiscoidea) from the Middle Jurassic of China, and its phylogenetic implication". Paleontological Journal. 43 (6): 652. Bibcode:2009PalJ...43..652W. doi:10.1134/S0031030109060082. ISSN1555-6174. S2CID83756102.