diff --git a/debian/libwsutil0.symbols b/debian/libwsutil0.symbols
index 2aa4359818..df377b8bee 100644
--- a/debian/libwsutil0.symbols
+++ b/debian/libwsutil0.symbols
@@ -186,6 +186,7 @@ libwsutil.so.0 libwsutil0 #MINVER#
  type_util_gdouble_to_guint64@Base 1.10.0
  type_util_guint64_to_gdouble@Base 1.10.0
  ulaw2linear@Base 1.12.0~rc1
+ unix_epoch_to_nstime@Base 3.5.0
  update_adler32@Base 1.12.0~rc1
  update_crc10_by_bytes@Base 1.10.0
  ws_add_crash_info@Base 1.10.0
diff --git a/doc/editcap.pod b/doc/editcap.pod
index 402c710176..1d7f520e1e 100644
--- a/doc/editcap.pod
+++ b/doc/editcap.pod
@@ -105,7 +105,8 @@ The time is given in ISO 8601 format, either
 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS[.nnnnnnnnn][Z|±hh:mm] or
 YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS[.nnnnnnnnn][Z|±hh:mm] .
 The fractional seconds are optional, as is the time zone offset from UTC
-(in which case local time is assumed).
+(in which case local time is assumed). Unix epoch timestamps
+(floating point format) are also accepted.
 
 =item -B  E<lt>stop timeE<gt>
 
@@ -114,7 +115,8 @@ The time is given in ISO 8601 format, either
 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS[.nnnnnnnnn][Z|±hh:mm] or
 YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS[.nnnnnnnnn][Z|±hh:mm] .
 The fractional seconds are optional, as is the time zone offset from UTC
-(in which case local time is assumed).
+(in which case local time is assumed). Unix epoch timestamps
+(floating point format) are also accepted.
 
 =item -c  E<lt>packets per fileE<gt>
 
diff --git a/editcap.c b/editcap.c
index b5f055caab..175dca693f 100644
--- a/editcap.c
+++ b/editcap.c
@@ -764,6 +764,7 @@ print_usage(FILE *output)
     fprintf(output, "                         given time.\n");
     fprintf(output, "                         Time format for -A/-B options is\n");
     fprintf(output, "                         YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnnnn][Z|+-hh:mm]\n");
+    fprintf(output, "                         Unix epoch timestamps are also supported.\n");
     fprintf(output, "\n");
     fprintf(output, "Duplicate packet removal:\n");
     fprintf(output, "  --novlan               remove vlan info from packets before checking for duplicates.\n");
@@ -1284,7 +1285,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
             nstime_t in_time;
 
             check_startstop = TRUE;
-            if (0 < iso8601_to_nstime(&in_time, optarg)) {
+            if ((0 < iso8601_to_nstime(&in_time, optarg)) || (0 < unix_epoch_to_nstime(&in_time, optarg))) {
                 if (opt == 'A') {
                     nstime_copy(&starttime, &in_time);
                     have_starttime = TRUE;
diff --git a/wsutil/nstime.c b/wsutil/nstime.c
index a2939a4c30..a66ad390b0 100644
--- a/wsutil/nstime.c
+++ b/wsutil/nstime.c
@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@
 #include "epochs.h"
 #include "time_util.h"
 
+#ifndef HAVE_STRPTIME
+# include "wsutil/strptime.h"
+#endif
+
 /* this is #defined so that we can clearly see that we have the right number of
    zeros, rather than as a guard against the number of nanoseconds in a second
    changing ;) */
@@ -453,6 +457,80 @@ iso8601_to_nstime(nstime_t *nstime, const char *ptr)
     return ret_val;
 }
 
+/*
+ * function: unix_epoch_to_nstime
+ * parses a character string for a date and time given in
+ * a floating point number containing a Unix epoch date-time
+ * format (e.g. 1600000000.000 for Sun Sep 13 05:26:40 AM PDT 2020)
+ * and converts to an nstime_t
+ * returns number of chars parsed on success, or 0 on failure
+ *
+ * Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time
+ */
+guint8
+unix_epoch_to_nstime(nstime_t *nstime, const char *ptr)
+{
+    struct tm tm;
+    char *ptr_new;
+
+    gint n_chars = 0;
+    guint frac = 0;
+    guint8 ret_val = 0;
+    const char *start = ptr;
+
+    memset(&tm, 0, sizeof(tm));
+    tm.tm_isdst = -1;
+    nstime_set_unset(nstime);
+
+    if (!(ptr_new=strptime(ptr, "%s", &tm))) {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    /* Validate what we got so far. mktime() doesn't care about strange
+       values (and we use this to our advantage when calculating the
+       time zone offset) but we should at least start with something valid */
+    if (!tm_is_valid(&tm)) {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    /* No UTC offset given; ISO 8601 says this means localtime */
+    nstime->secs = mktime(&tm);
+
+    /* Now let's test for fractional seconds */
+    if (*ptr_new == '.' || *ptr_new == ',') {
+        /* Get fractional seconds */
+        ptr_new++;
+        if (1 <= sscanf(ptr_new, "%u%n", &frac, &n_chars)) {
+            /* normalize frac to nanoseconds */
+            if ((frac >= 1000000000) || (frac == 0)) {
+                frac = 0;
+            } else {
+                switch (n_chars) { /* including leading zeros */
+                    case 1: frac *= 100000000; break;
+                    case 2: frac *= 10000000; break;
+                    case 3: frac *= 1000000; break;
+                    case 4: frac *= 100000; break;
+                    case 5: frac *= 10000; break;
+                    case 6: frac *= 1000; break;
+                    case 7: frac *= 100; break;
+                    case 8: frac *= 10; break;
+                    default: break;
+                }
+            }
+            ptr_new += n_chars;
+        }
+        /* If we didn't get frac, it's still its default of 0 */
+    }
+    else {
+        tm.tm_sec = 0;
+    }
+    nstime->nsecs = frac;
+
+    /* return pointer shift */
+    ret_val = (guint)(ptr_new-start);
+    return ret_val;
+}
+
 /*
  * Editor modelines
  *
diff --git a/wsutil/nstime.h b/wsutil/nstime.h
index 2292b6f811..4003a6371d 100644
--- a/wsutil/nstime.h
+++ b/wsutil/nstime.h
@@ -128,6 +128,11 @@ WS_DLL_PUBLIC gboolean nsfiletime_to_nstime(nstime_t *nstime, guint64 nsfiletime
     Note that nstime is set to unset in the case of failure */
 WS_DLL_PUBLIC guint8 iso8601_to_nstime(nstime_t *nstime, const char *ptr);
 
+/** parse an Unix epoch timestamp format datetime string to nstime, returns
+    number of chars parsed on success, 0 on failure.
+    Note that nstime is set to unset in the case of failure */
+WS_DLL_PUBLIC guint8 unix_epoch_to_nstime(nstime_t *nstime, const char *ptr);
+
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
 #endif /* __cplusplus */