Current Research on Paleoentomology — A Preface
Current Research on Paleoentomology — A Preface
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1755-6724.2010.00265.x
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发表时间：
2010-08
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
R. Dong
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作者：
R. Dong
昆虫，包括系统发育上的基础类群弹尾目、原虫目和双足目，被称为六足目。六足动物包括超过一百万个已描述的物种，这些物种比所有其他活着的类群加在一起更加多样化。这个保守估计和实际数字总共可能是五到一千万（Wilson，1992）。一般而言，六足动物，尤其是昆虫，都有着悠久的历史，已知最早的化石记录可追溯到下泥盆统的雷尼燧石（布拉格纪，411-4.07 亿年前）。六足动物的真实年龄，即它们与非六足动物姐妹群共同祖先的年龄，可以从 6.6 亿年到 4.3 亿年的系统发育史中确定（Gaunt & Miles，2002）。然而，没有任何化石证据可以追溯到大约 4.12 亿年前。几乎所有现存的昆虫目都在二叠纪晚期就已存在（Jarzembowski 和 Ross，1996），远远早于白垩纪被子植物辐射和古近纪哺乳动物和鸟类辐射。从一开始，昆虫作为原始的无翅类钆类生物，就获得了广泛的适应性辐射，成为最成功的生物体群体。毫无疑问，这一成功在很大程度上可归因于（1）管状呼吸系统的进化；（2）双髁状、肌肉发达的下颌骨的获得；（3）翅膀的起源；（4）双髁状、肌肉发达的下颌骨的获得。 (4)同代谢发育。事实上，昆虫是最早、最多样化的陆生动物之一，而且可能是第一批与植物形成密切关系的陆生动物。作为陆地上最具生态优势的动物，昆虫尽管体型很小，却影响着我们生活的许多方面。所有天然的和改良的、陆地的和水生的生态系统都支持昆虫群落，这些昆虫群落呈现出令人眼花缭乱的生活方式、形式和功能。我们研究昆虫有很多原因。它们的经济或环境影响是巨大的，而且在生态上变化极大。昆虫可能在数量、营养影响、联系和营养多样性方面主导食物链和食物网。不同昆虫类群的摄食特性包括摄入碎屑、腐烂物质、活木和死木以及真菌、水生滤食和放牧、草食、树液摄食、捕食、寄生和拟寄生（Labandeira，2002，2006）。在确定昆虫的进化关系时，昆虫学家使用各种来源的证据。对一个群体中现存成员的比较形态学、胚胎学、生理学、生物化学以及越来越多的分子生物学可以提供有关群体内进化趋势的线索。然而，只有化石记录才能为这种过程提供直接证据。不幸的是，就节肢动物而言，早期化石记录很少。古昆虫学是对昆虫化石各个方面的研究。古昆虫学的创立可以说始于 18 世纪末古典文学的重新发现。 Linné 去世一年后，Bloch (1779) 首次使用二项式名称来描述柯巴脂（一种可追溯到约百万年前的树脂）中的昆虫。六十年后，Germar（1837、1839）首次描述了大型化石矿床的物质。 Germar的研究可以被视为古昆虫学的起点。
Insects, including the phylogenetically basal groups Collembola, Protura, and Diplura are termed the Hexapoda. Hexapods include over one million described species that are more diverse than all other living taxa together. This conservative estimate and the real number is perhaps five to ten million in total (Wilson, 1992). Hexapods in general and insects in particular have an ancient history with the earliest known fossil record extending to the Rhynie Chert of the Lower Devonian (Pragian, 411-407 million years ago). The true age of the hexapods, namely, the age of their common ancestor with a non-hexapod sister-group has been dated from phylogenies ranging from 660 million years to 430 million years (Gaunt & Miles, 2002). However, no fossil evidence exists older than about 412 million years. Nearly all extant insect orders were in existence by the Late Permian (Jarzembowski and Ross, 1996), well before the Early Cretaceous angiosperm radiation and the Paleogene mammalian and avian radiations. From their beginning, as primitively wingless thysanuran-like creatures, insects have acquired a vast adaptive repertoire radiation to become the most successful group of living organisms. Undoubtedly, a large measure of this success can be attributed to (1) the evolution of a tubular respiratory system;(2) acquisition of dicondylic, strongly musculated mandibles;(3) the origin of wings; and (4) homometabolous development. Indeed, insects are among the earliest, most diverse terrestrial animals, and probably the first terrestrial animals to have formed intimate relationships with plants. Being the most ecologically dominant animals on land, insects affect many aspects of our lives, despite their small size. All natural and modified, terrestrial and aquatic, ecosystems support communities of insects that present a bewildering variety of life-styles, forms and functions. We study insects for many reasons. Their economic or environmental effects are enormous and incredibly variable ecologically. Insects may dominate food chains and food webs in both abundance numbers, trophic impact, links, and trophic variety. Feeding specializations of different insect groups include ingestion of detritus, rotting materials, live and dead wood and fungi, aquatic filter feeding and grazing, herbivory, sap feeding, and prédation, and parasitism, and parasitoidism (Labandeira, 2002, 2006). In determining the evolutionary relationships of insects, entomologists use evidence from a variety of sources. Comparative morphology, embryology, physiology, biochemistry and, increasingly, molecular biology, of living members of a group can provide clues about intragroup evolutionary trends. However, only the fossil record can provide direct evidence for such processes. Unfortunately, in the case of arthropods the early fossil record is poor.Paleoentomology is the study all aspects of insect fossils. The founding of Paleoentomology arguably begins by the late 18th century with a rediscovery of the classical literature. It was one year after Linné's death, Bloch (1779) first used binomial names dealing with insects included in the copal (a resin extending to approximately million years ago). The first description of material from a large fossil deposit occurred sixty years later by Germar (1837, 1839). Germar's study can be taken as the starting point of Paleoentomology.