“Palaeoentomology”: A modern journal for a science dealing with the past

Abstract

Palaeoentomology started in the late XVIII^th century, shortly after the 10^th edition of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae (the foundation of modern taxonomy), when papers on the curiosities of insects entombed in fossil resins were published. The beginning of XIX^th century (with the growing interest in geological sciences and prehistoric life) witnessed the first attempts to study and describe insects from sedimentary rocks. This discipline then developed during the XIX^th and beginning of the XX^th centuries; and resulted in some major works and reviews (summarizing the knowledge on fossil insects and other terrestrial arthropods) published in the geological and biological literature. The XX^th century was a period of relatively slow but constant development in palaeoentomology, during which the famous “Treatise on invertebrate paleontology: Arthropoda 4. Superclass Hexapoda” (cataloguing the knowledge on fossil insects) was published (Carpenter, 1992). At the beginning of XXI^st century, palaeoentomology grew significantly and exponentially; and two major manuals (“History of insects” and “Evolution of the insects”) were published (Rasnitsyn & Quicke, 2002; Grimaldi & Engel, 2005, respectively). These manuals helped to encourage more students and researchers to work on fossil insects and other terrestrial arthropods.