Palaeoentomological exhibition Conquerors of the Earth
From the view point of most people, large animals are more impressive than their smaller relatives; however, everyone knows that, for example, ants are tremendously more numerous than elephants or bears, although they are not so noticeable. Insects are small, but their total biomass essentially exceeds the biomass of large creatures. Insects are not only exceptionally numerous, they are extremely diverse. The age of the most famous fossils, dinosaurs, beginned 220 and ended 65 million years ago. This is a very long period comparing to two or three million years of the mankind history, if it is counted from ancient apes. The age of insects started 300 million years ago, and nobody can forsee its end. Other arthropods appeared well before that.
Our mobile exhibition Conquerors of the Earth was constructed in 2000 by members of staff of the Laboratory of Arthropods, Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. This is the first exhibition in Russian telling about origin and evolution of arthropods against a background of general changes on our planet; about their triumphal conquerring air, water, and land; about causes and ways of their burial as fossils; and about people studying those fossils. For better understanding of consequence in animal and plant evolution, the exhibition is illustrated by a geochronological chart containg brief characteristics of periods involved.
The exhibition has been developed in two aspects. First, more than 100 natural fossils ― arthropods, mainly insects, and plants buried in sediments of ancient water bodies are represented. On the other hand, more than 150 colour reconstructions and photographs of animals, plants, and landscapes of past geological epochs illustrate the exposition. Photographs like a magic crystal help visitors to see details of fossilised organisms, whereas colour reconstructions help to actualise the charm and magnificence of whole nature and insects of the past.
The first part of the exposition is introducing guests to remains of the oldest arthropods, viz. trilobites, crustaceans, and eurypterids, discovered in deposits of Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian seas. Then an amazing world of first Carboniferous insects, which are nearly extinct by the present time, continues the exposition.
The Permian, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods are revealed in much more details. Substituting large and cumbersome Carboniferous insects, the historical scene is becoming occupied by diverse smaller insects resembling modern ones. Parasitic and bloodsucking forms appeared; close and diverse insect-plant interactions established with the appearance of first angiosperm vegetation.
An old legend narrates about amber origin from tears of mourning Heliades, daughters of the Sun, sorrowing over their perished brother. It is a beautiful legend, but actually amber represents fossilised resin of ancient plants. Amber is known to people from classic times; by now, scientists have discovered a great variety of this mineral. The Laboratory of Arthropods in Moscow has long experience of work with insect inclusions in fossil resins, and the last section of the exhibition is devoted to such insects and fossil resin samples, where inclusions may be seen with the help of underlight. A microworld of amber forests is cropping out to visitors’ attention. Besides the Baltic amber, Late Cretaceous fossil resins from the Taimyr Peninsular, North Siberia, are represented. The size of many inclusions does not often exceed one millemetre, but finest details of insects are visible due to their unique preservation. This section is illustrated with large diapositives depicting insects found in fossil resins.
All natural specimens and illustrations are accompanied with detail information not only on systematic position and geological age of presented material, but on their biological and ecological peculiarities. Arthropod specimens come from the collection of the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, palaeobotanical specimens and their art reconstructions are provided by the Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. Colour reconstructions has been made by the leading researcher of the Palaeontological Institute A.G. Ponomarenko. To enhance its perceptibility, the exposition is extended with a collection of Recent pinned and live insects and numerous printed materials.
The exhibition is targeted for general public; however, it may attract special attention of schoolchildren, teachers, students, naturalists, and all those who are interested in natural history and in the past of our planet. The exhibition is accompanied by Expeditions for ancient insects slide show and by Microworld video film. By now, the exhibition Conquerors of the Earth has been visited by more than 20 000 people in Moscow, Rybinsk, Voronezh, Elektrostal’, Pavlovsky Possad, Ramenskoe, and Kaliningrad.
This section is prepared by I.D. Sukacheva and M.B. Mostovski
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