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some survive and even reproduce in salt water, but nevertheless of Sciences; and by various help, including sharing unpublished very few of them are specialised for marine life.