History of Insects

ISBN-13: 9781402000263 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 517 str.

Alexandr Rasnitsyn; A. P. Rasnitsyn; D. Quicke

Opis

Insects are not dinosaurs and they probably pose us more strange ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS puzzles and unexpected questions. A million extant species, that is sev- For A. P. Rasnitsyn, preparing of various parts of this book was s- eral times more than all other living taxa together, is still a very c- ported in part by grants: by the International Science Foundation, by servative estimate, and their real number is for sure many times more. the Leverhulme Trust to D. L. J. Quicke and M. G. Fitton; by the Royal They are incomparably diverse in terms of their size, structure and way Society Joint Project with the FSU to APR and E. A. Jarzembowski; by of life and yet they are all small by our standard at least why? And ESF Project Fossil Insects Network; by RFFI grants 95-04-11105, they practically ignore the cradle of life, the sea again, why? Of 98-04-48518; by the Smithsonian Institution and California Academy course, some survive and even reproduce in salt water, but nevertheless of Sciences; and by various help, including sharing unpublished very few of them are specialised for marine life."

Spis treści

Preface. Acknowledgements. Contributors. 1. Introduction to Palaeoentomology. 2. Class Insecta Linné, 1758. The Insects. 3. General Features of the Insect History. 4. Appendix: Alphabetic List of Selected Insect Fossil Sites. 5. References. Indexes. Figure Captions.

Blurb

This is the first time that a single book has attempted to cover the whole of the fossil history of insects, so comprehensively. The volume embraces the history of insect paleontology, the methods for studying fossils, the taphonomic processes leading to their formation, the diagnostic features of all insect orders, both extant and extinct, the major fossils of each order, and the implications that can be drawn from the palaeoentomological record about past ecology and climates. Many new insights are presented. 

It is the product principally of the largest palaeoentomological group in the world, in Moscow, and makes full use of the remarkable collection that these workers have developed. It includes a very large number of phylogenetic framework, with information on fossil groups being used to help interpret relationships. An appendix provides information on virtually all sites where fossil insects have been found. This book is essential to all students of palaeoentomology and contains a wealth of information that will be of interest to students of insect evolutionary relationships and palaeontology in general. 

The Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), is the world’s largest team of paleontologists, with 263 total staff and 117 paleontologists (as of January 2000) in 12 research departments and in the Yu. A. Orlov Paleontological Museum.