Today is International Fossil Insect Day!

Today is the first International Fossil Insect Day, as established by Prof. Dany Azar at the International Meeting of the Palaeoentomological Society held in Edinburgh earlier this year (see our previous blog post about this event by clicking here). To mark this event we are offering 20% off our already discounted fossil insect titles using the following codes, which expire at midnight GMT on 3rd October! Fossilinsects1 for Fossil Insects: An introduction to palaeoentomology and Fossilinsects2 for Fossil insects of the Purbeck Limestone of Southern England. Today, insects are the little things that run the world ... and you should not be surprised to find out that the same was true in the past. Those of you not familiar with fossil insects might be surprised at the incredible diversity and high degree of preservation of such tiny and delicate creatures that lived many millions (in some cases hundreds of millions) years ago. To date more than 25,000 different species of fossil insects have been described (compared to around only 1,500 species of dinosaurs!). Click the covers below to go to the product pages, where you can see reviews, more information and order a copy:

Dany should be especially congratulated for managing to get a set of postage stamps designed and due for release in France to mark the event! The two stamps depict fossil insects preserved in ca. 125 million-year-old amber from Lebanon. The photo below shows David Penney of Siri Scientific Press with Dany Azar at the meeting where the announcement was made.