After the opening of the Academy of Sciences in 1725, and in 1755 of Moscow University in Russia, the rapid formation of Russian science began. Back in 1720, Peter the Great sent the learned physician Daniil Messerschmidt to Siberia, who traveled around Siberia for seven years and brought from there rich collections of animals and birds. Even richer collections and discoveries were made by the participants of the second Kamchatka northern expedition of 1733-1742: S.P. Krasheninnikov, Gmelin the Elder, Steller.

The research of the brilliant son of the Russian people, M.V. Lomonosov, who was ahead of Western science with his brilliant discoveries, had a tremendous influence on the development of Russian natural science. Academician P. S. Pallas lived almost his entire life in Russia. He and his contemporaries I. Lepekhin, Gmelin the Younger and A. Gyldenstedt explored the east and south of the European part of Russia, Western Siberia, Altai, Baikal and Transbaikalia. In the 19th century zoological survey of Russia continued by expeditions of the Academy of Sciences (K. Baer, A. F. Middendorf), Moscow societies of nature explorers and natural history lovers (S. Karelin, N. A. Severtsov, A. P. Bogdanov, A. P. Fedchenko) and Russian Geographical Society (N. M. Przhevalsky, I. Potanin, P. K. Kozlov, M. N. Bogdanov, P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky).

The discovery of biological stations was of enormous importance for the study of the fauna of the seas: the Sevastopol Biological Station (founded by A. O. Kovalevsky in 1871), the Neapolitan Zoological Station (A. Dorn, 1872), the freshwater station on Glubokoe Lake near Moscow (N. Yu. Zograf, 1891), Murmansk station (K. M. Deryugin, 1896), Baikal limnological station, etc.

The publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859 was a major turning point in the history of zoology.

After the advent of Darwin's teachings (1859), established concepts and ideas in all areas of biology underwent a radical revision. The species is no longer considered unchanged. A variety began to be understood as a forming species, a system of animals - as a relationship between groups that arises as a result of the evolutionary process. The phenomena of similarity in development and the basic structure of organs (homologs, see below), already known before Darwin, received a natural explanation. The unity of multicellular animals in relation to their cellular structure became clear. In embryology, the doctrine of germ layers began to rapidly develop (see below); the phenomenon of similarity of embryos in animals that differ greatly in the adult state became clear and served as the starting point for the doctrine of the repetition of evolutionary development by embryonic development. Numerous interesting facts about the geographical distribution of animals and their geological history, etc., became clear.

Zoology is one of the classical biological sciences. Its origin, not counting the initial accumulation of information about animals, is associated with ancient times. The great scientist and thinker of Ancient Greece, Aristotle, considered the founder of a number of sciences, in the 4th century. BC e. for the first time he systematized the accumulated knowledge about animals and divided all species known to him into two groups - animals with blood and animals without blood. The first group included vertebrates (animals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish), the second - invertebrates (insects, spiders, crayfish, mollusks, worms). Aristotle first put forward the idea of the subordination of parts of the body, which much later would be embodied in the doctrine of correlations.

The era of the Roman Empire left us a multi-volume work by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) “Natural History”, in which two volumes are devoted to living organisms. True, for the most part this was information gleaned from the works of Aristotle.

The fall of the Roman Empire and the establishment of the dominance of the Christian Church led to the decline of the sciences. During this era, called the Middle Ages, the pursuit of natural sciences was not only not encouraged, but was directly persecuted. Only biblical dogmas about the creation of the world were recognized.

The accumulation of zoological knowledge was resumed only in the Renaissance that followed the Middle Ages, from the 15th century. Scientists were mainly interested in the structure of the body, so the greatest successes were achieved in the field of anatomy. The famous artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), studying bones and joints, established similarities in the structure of the bones of a horse and a human leg, despite their external dissimilarity. Thus, he discovered the phenomenon of homology, which later united many apparently different animals and helped lay the foundation for the theory of evolution.

Natural history of the Renaissance reached its peak in the works of the Swiss Conrad Gesner (1516-1565), who reported a lot of information about animals, although often not original, but gleaned from the works of ancient scientists. In the XVI-XVII centuries. Doctors made a great contribution to the study of animal and human anatomy. The largest anatomist of the Renaissance was Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), who published the first most accurate work on human anatomy. Gabriele Fallopius (1523-1562) studied the reproductive organs. He describes the tubes going from the ovaries to the uterus. Bartolomeo Eustigio (1510-1574) discovered the tube connecting the ear to the throat. While studying blood circulation, William Harvey (1578-1657) discovered the existence of one-way valves in the heart and proved that blood flows through the veins into the heart and then enters the arteries, i.e. constantly moving in one direction. Harvey's book “An Anatomical Study of the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals” (1628) caused a complete revolution in zoology.

The invention of the microscope was of great importance for the development of zoology. The Dutchman Anton Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), using a microscope he made, gave the first description of blood cells and capillaries, his assistant was the first to see sperm, but the main thing was the discovery of protozoa, made when examining a drop of water under a microscope. During the same period, the English scientist Robert Hooke (1635-1703) performed a number of fine microscopic works and in 1665 published the book “Micrography”, in which a cell was depicted for the first time in the history of biology. This discovery had important consequences.

At the end of the 17th - first half of the 18th century. The foundations of the taxonomy of the animal world were laid. The first attempt in this direction was made by the English naturalist John Ray (1628-1705). In his book A Systematic Review of Animals, published in 1693, Rey proposed a classification of animals based on a set of external characteristics, for example, the presence of claws and teeth. Thus, he divided mammals into two groups: animals with fingers and animals with hooves. The latter, in turn, were divided into one-hoofed (horse), two-hoofed (cow) and three-hoofed (rhinoceros). More fractional units were also identified.

Despite the imperfection of Rey's classification, the principle underlying it was developed in the works of the famous Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). In 1735, Linnaeus published the book “System of Nature,” in which he outlined his classification of plants and animals. He is rightfully considered the founder of taxonomy, which studies the classification of species of living organisms. Linnaeus grouped closely related species into genera, closely related genera into orders, and closely related orders into classes. All known animal species were grouped into 6 classes: mammals, birds, amphibians (combining reptiles and amphibians), fish, insects and worms. Each species in Linnaeus had a double Latin name: the first word in it is the name of the genus, the second - the species. The form of binary (double) nomenclature has been preserved to this day. Linnaeus took the position of the immutability of species, although in the end he was forced to admit the possibility of the formation of new species through hybridization.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. French zoologist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) developed the foundations of comparative animal anatomy and, in particular, the doctrine of correlations. Cuvier was the founder of paleontology. Based on these works, in 1825 Henri Blainville introduced into the system the concept of “type” - the highest taxonomic unit.

French biologist Georges Buffon (1707-1788) expressed the idea of mutability of species under the influence of the environment. Buffon is the author of the 44-volume encyclopedia Natural History;

he established the presence in animals of rudimentary organs that were once normally developed.

Another French naturalist, Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829), devoted himself to a detailed study of the historical development of living nature. He first introduced the terms “invertebrates” and “vertebrates” into use, worked a lot on the systematization of invertebrates, among which he already distinguished 10 classes, and in 1815-1822. published a large work, “Natural History of Invertebrate Animals.” In the process of taxonomic work, he repeatedly had to think about the possibility of an evolutionary process. His main work, “Philosophy of Zoology” (1809), is devoted to the presentation of the scientific theory of the evolution of the animal world. Lamarck believed that organisms change under the direct influence of the environment and acquired characteristics are inherited, but the idea of natural selection was alien to him.

During the same period, Russian scientists K. F. Roulier (1814-1858) and K. M. Baer (1792-1876) opposed the idea of the immutability of species. Roulier called for studying animals in their natural environment and in interaction with their environment. He can rightfully be considered a harbinger of ecology. K. M. Baer is the author of outstanding research in the field of animal embryology, the creator of the doctrine of germ layers.

The development of zoology was significantly influenced by the science that was formed in the late 30s of the 19th century. cell theory. Its creators are M. Schleiden (1804-1881) and T. Schwann (1810-1882). This theory convincingly demonstrated the unity of living organisms at the cellular level.

With the publication of the famous work of Charles Darwin (1809-1882) “The Origin of Species” (1859), a new period begins in the development of biology in general and zoology in particular. Darwin's book sets out the doctrine of evolution and defines the most important factor in evolution - natural selection.

Charles Darwin's ideas began to be used by zoologists to develop the history of the animal world. The greatest contribution to the development of animal phylogeny in the 19th century. contributed by scientists such as E. Haeckel (1834-1919) and F. Müller (1821-1897). The latter, being an embryologist, established patterns in the relationships between individual development (ontogenesis) and phylogeny of animals. In 1866, E. Haeckel formed his “biogenetic law”, according to which embryos in the process of development repeat in an abbreviated form the evolutionary path traversed by their ancestors (“ontogenesis repeats phylogeny”).

The evidence of evolution given by Charles Darwin aroused great interest in the comparative study of various groups of animals, in connection with which sciences such as evolutionary comparative anatomy and evolutionary comparative embryology emerged. In the creation of the latter, the leading role belonged to Russian zoologists I.I. Mechnikov (1845-1916) and A.O. Kovalevsky (1840-1901). The conclusions of comparative embryology, based on the theory of evolution, served as strong evidence in favor of the unity of origin of all types of the animal kingdom. Already at the beginning of the 20th century. The embryonic development of most types of animals was elucidated in detail. At the same time, V.O. Kovalevsky (1842-1883) laid the foundations of evolutionary paleozoology with his work on fossil ungulates. Systematics and zoogeography are developing extremely quickly. Even in pre-Darwin times, N. A. Severtsov (1827-1885) established a connection between the characteristics of the fauna and the physical and geographical conditions in which this fauna develops. Thus, the foundation of ecological zoogeography was laid.

Second half of the 19th century. marked by the emergence of a new science - ecology. Russian zoologists formulated many of the main provisions and methodological principles of theoretical ecology. Moscow professor K. F. Roulier was one of the first to show the importance of studying animals in community with other organisms and actually formulated the concept of population. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Extensive research was carried out in which ecological principles were applied in developing problems in the field of hunting and pest control (M.N. Bogdanov, L.P. Sabaneev, A.A. Silantiev, B.M. Zhitkov, etc.).

In the 20th century Zoology developed extremely actively. Here we will briefly note only the contribution of domestic scientists. In the 20th century basic research was carried out on the fauna of the World Ocean. The foundation of our knowledge about the zoogeography of the northern seas was laid by K. M. Deryugin, and a picture of the composition and biocenotic distribution of this fauna of the Black Sea was given in the classic work “On the question of studying the life of the Black Sea” (1913) by S. A. Zernov. The expedition vessels “Vityaz” (Russia) and “Galatea” (Denmark) explored the depths of the World Ocean up to 11 thousand meters and made outstanding zoological discoveries. This work is continued by the research fleet of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Remarkable discoveries include the discovery of a “living fossil” - a mollusk from the monoplacophoran class, deciphering the systematic position and establishing a new type of marine animals - pogonophora (A.V. Ivanov) and many others.

The volume of entomological work performed by our scientists is very large. Insects are the largest group in the entire animal kingdom. Among them there are many harmful species, carriers of human and domestic animal diseases, but there are many useful ones - pollinators of flowering plants, producers of valuable products (honey, silk, wax). In the field of entomology, the contribution of such scientists as A. A. Stackelberg, A. S. Monchadsky, G. Ya. Bei-Bienko, S. I. Medvedev, O. L. Kryzhanovsky, G. S. Medvedev is great. The soil-ecological research of the scientific school of Academician M. S. Gilyarov was of great importance.

02/21/2012 | Scientific discoveries in zoology and biology. February 2012

Zoologists have discovered new species of the smallest reptiles

A group of German and American scientists have discovered four new species of dwarf chameleons on the islands of northern Madagascar. Discoverers believe these lizards may be the smallest reptiles in the world.

Very young individuals of the species Brookesia micra fit on a match head (photo by Jorn Kohler).

As Wired reports, all the new species belong to the genus Brookesia. The smallest of the new brookesias, called B. micra, is 24 mm long including its tail, making it the smallest chameleon on Earth. Individuals of the other three species do not exceed 29 mm in length.

Researchers say the new species are very similar in appearance, but have remarkable genetic differences that suggest millions of years may have passed between the appearance of these chameleons on Earth.

Scientists note that all the new lizards have a very small range (it is limited to a few square kilometers), and for this reason, chameleons are in danger of becoming extinct along with their tiny habitat.

Males (left) and females (right) of the new species. A and B - B. tristis. C and D - B. confidens. E and F - B. micra. G and H - B. desperata (photo by Frank Glaw).

Thus, B. micra lives only on one island, Nosy Hara, and the species B. desperata and B. tristis rely on small forest areas, which are officially considered nature reserves, but suffer from illegal logging, which has recently increased significantly, partly due to with the political crisis in Madagascar. Zoologists deliberately gave species names that scream for help: desperata means desperate, and tristis means sad. (The name of the fourth species, B. confidens, does not contain such a call.)

Portrait of an adult male "desperate looking" B. desperata (photo by Frank Glaw).

Scientists described “striking examples of miniaturization and microendemism” in an article published in the free access journal PLoS ONE.

Biologists have discovered self-medication with alcohol in fruit flies

If the potential victims of this wasp, the larvae of a fruit fly, are taken to the breast, the aggressor will not only fail in his plan, but will also die in terrible agony.

As LiveScience reports, American biologists from Emory University experimented with the black-bellied fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). The larvae of these flies feed on fungi and bacteria from rotten fruits.

"They're essentially living on a binge," explains Todd A. Schlenke. - The amount of alcohol in their natural habitat can vary from 5 to 15 percent. Imagine that your entire daily diet of food and drink consists of 5% alcohol. We couldn’t live like that, and fruit flies have a good detoxification mechanism.”

However, some fruit flies can resist wasp venom and have an immune response to fight off the wasp eggs. The blood cells of these flies emit egg-killing chemicals.

“There is an ongoing evolutionary battle between the fly's immune system and wasp venom. Any new defense mechanism in fruit flies tends to spread through natural selection,” comments Todd Schlenke, who suggested that alcohol may be such a defense for D. melanogaster.

To test the theory, the researchers filled a Petri dish with yeast. The scientists mixed 6 percent alcohol on one side of the saucer and not on the other, after which they released Drosophila larvae into the cups and allowed them to move freely in any direction.

After 24 hours, 80% of the wasp-infected larvae were on the “alcoholic side” of the saucer, while only 30% were uninfected in this kind of bar.

Meanwhile, those few wasps that encroached on the “alcoholized” larvae faced a terrible death. "In many cases, the wasp's internal organs fell out of its anus," Schlenke says. “The wasps were turned inside out.”

Zoologists explain the appearance of stripes on zebras

Before creating their model for analysis, the scientists carefully calculated the width of black and white stripes on different parts of the body, using the skins of three types of zebras (photo by Adam Egri et al. / Journal of Experimental Biology).

Hungarian researchers have proposed a new version of the purpose of black and white stripes, which intrigued Charles Darwin. The reasons for their appearance turned out to be unexpectedly related to insects.

Adam Egri from Eotvos Lorand Tudomanyegyetem University and his colleagues believe that alternating black and white stripes protects zebras from blood-sucking insects.

Biologists from Budapest decided to revive and retest the hypothesis first expressed back in the 1930s. Scientists say striped horses attract far fewer horse flies than their uniform black, brown, gray or white equivalents.

The point is the visual characteristics of insects. The decrease in the attractiveness of a striped surface is not so much due to the alternation of brightness as due to polarization effects.

White and black stripes reflect light with different polarizations, scientists explain, and this confuses horseflies (the stripes get confused in their head, disrupting the functioning of the spatial orientation system).

To experimentally test the hypothesis, biologists used trays of oil, reports New Scientist. It was necessary to catch annoying flies. Researchers hunted near Budapest on farms where many of the necessary insects were found.

Black trays were covered with white patterns of various types - thick and thin stripes were tested, stripes running parallel and intersecting criss-cross, and so on.

The authors note that horseflies have learned to identify water using the horizontal polarization of light. After all, insects drink, mate, and lay eggs near bodies of water. The pictures show several options for test trays. From top to bottom - color image, degree of polarization, angle of polarization and the proportion of the surface identified by the horsefly as water, that is, attracting its attention (photo by Adam Egri et al. / Journal of Experimental Biology).

Tests have shown that horseflies are less likely to fly onto thin strips than thick ones, and are less likely to fly into trays with parallel stripes than with intersecting ones.

Well, since diseases are transmitted through horsefly bites, it is clear that striped creatures in ancient Africa statistically had a greater chance of growing up and giving birth to offspring than variants with other colors. The authors of the work believe that the version with insects can explain the striping of animal skins in some other cases, in addition to zebras.

The scientists reported on the results of the study in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

In this set of tests, biologists gradually reduced the width of the strips and looked at how many insects fell into the tray (photo by Adam Egri et al./Journal of Experimental Biology).

Other known explanations for the stripes, their causes and functions are numerous, but none have yet been definitively established.

One of them says that zebras “invented” this coloring for camouflage in tall grass. (But this doesn't work well on open plains.) The second is that the stripes confuse large predators by creating optical illusions. This flickering especially confuses the eye when several animals are moving quickly nearby. (This is a probable, but not certain reason.) The third version is that stripes are needed for social interaction, as an identification mark, especially important during courtship. (Such a purpose is possible, but it does not follow that they appeared for this reason.) The fourth option is that the stripes are needed for thermoregulation. (And this hypothesis has not been proven.)

Voluntary castration was the spiders' response to female cannibalism

Spiders of the species Nephilengys malabarensis have come up with an unusual tactic to escape from bloodthirsty females - in order to increase the chances of survival of their offspring without being eaten, they “break off” their genitals after mating.

The results of a study by biologists from the National University of Singapore surprised even seasoned scientists. For a long time they could not understand why males actually sterilize themselves.

However, it turned out that in this way the males “finish what they started” and at the same time manage to escape before the spider decides that the partner will go for a snack.

The sexual organ, separated from the male’s body, while in the female’s body, continues to emit sperm for a long time, biologists write in an article in Biology Letters. It would be possible to delay and complete the process, but voluntary castration saves the spider’s life.

Long-term insemination “from afar” increases the male’s chances of procreation, since more of his sperm enters the female’s genitals, in addition, the tip covers the hole, preventing other spiders from copulating with the same female.

It is curious that females also sometimes interrupt the copulation process by breaking off the tip of the spider’s genital organ, in this way they probably regulate the duration of the act of fertilization.

In this image, the red square highlights the broken tip of the male's genital organ protruding from the female's body (photo by D. Li et al., Biol. Lett., The Royal Society).

Scientists also do not rule out that eunuch spiders gain some advantage for themselves personally. Voluntary castration can make them more aggressive and agile, which helps in hunting and fighting other individuals.

Scientists: Dogs are smarter than chimpanzees

A team of researchers from the Max Pank Institute (Leipzig, Germany) conducted a study, the results of which surprised everyone - it turned out that dogs are superior in intelligence to chimpanzees, although the latter are considered the most intelligent creatures after humans.

During the work, the scientists asked the animals, which included only dogs and chimpanzees, to bring various objects from the back of the room in which they were located. All objects were similar pairs, such as a piece of hose and a piece of rope. For correctly identifying the item, the test animal was rewarded with food.

A person can perform similar tasks as early as 14 months of age, so the test was classified as fairly easy. However, none of the chimpanzees tested were able to cope with it as quickly as the dogs did. In addition, the number of dogs that completed the task was 25% higher than the number of chimpanzees that completed the task.

However, scientists have found a fairly logical explanation for this phenomenon: “Dogs are bred to follow human orders. They are highly receptive to human cooperative relationships, which makes them an indispensable tool in activities such as hunting and herding.”

One of the hypotheses confirmed during the study suggests that dogs perceive human speech as a certain set of imperatives and spatial directives that regulate their behavior.

This study correlates with previous work by British scientists who decided to find out which pet is smarter - a dog or a cat. For this purpose, 11 criteria of cognitive activity were identified, in 5 of which cats were stronger, and in 6 - dogs, which proved the slight superiority of dogs over cats. However, it turned out to be too early to rejoice - as statistics show, UK residents with higher education more often prefer a cat than a dog as a pet.

Spiders' eyes 'blur' images to judge distance, scientists say

The front eyes are “rangefinders” of the jumping spider Hasarius adansoni

Jumping spiders estimate the distance to their prey by using image “blurring,” which allows them to calculate the exact distance to the target by how blurry the green component of the image becomes on the retina of their front eyes, Japanese biologists say in a paper published in the journal Science.

Vertebrates and invertebrates use several methods to determine distance using their eyes. For example, people estimate the distance to objects using their binocular vision, which allows them to determine the distance by the difference between the images in the right and left eyes. Other animals and insects turn their heads, estimating distance by the displacement of an object relative to a distant background.

A group of scientists led by Akihisa Terakita from Osaka University (Japan) studied the structure of the eyes of jumping spiders of the species Hasarius adansoni, trying to find out the secret of the extraordinary accuracy of jumping of these arthropods.

These arthropods have a pair of well-developed front eyes, which are one of the most important hunting tools. As a rule, damage to these organs is accompanied by a loss of the ability to make accurate jumps. According to scientists, the front eyes of horses must use some special mechanism to estimate distance, since they are not binocular and cannot focus on a specific point to determine displacement.

As the researchers note, the retina of Hasarius adansoni and many other spiders is designed in a special way. It has four layers with different sets of light-sensitive receptors. Each layer is responsible for recognizing four separate colors. This is explained by the fact that the spider does not know how to arbitrarily focus the image and therefore it has to read different components of light separately on those layers on which the picture will be clearest.

Terakita and his colleagues noticed that green light receptors are not located where green light waves are focused. Scientists have suggested that the spider uses this part of the retina not to recognize the green part of the visible spectrum, but to estimate distance by how “blurry” the image will be compared to pictures of other colors.

To test this hypothesis, biologists caught several horses and put them in a cage, which was illuminated by a monochrome lamp of green or red light. According to the researchers, the red radiation was supposed to throw off the “sight” of the spiders and their jumps would be shorter than the actual distance to their target.

As the scientists expected, the horses jumped and captured their prey very accurately when illuminated with green light. The light of the red “sun” forced their players to make mistakes. In such cases, the spiders did not reach up to 10% of the distance to the target. This result is in good agreement with theoretical calculations that explain the physics of “misses”.

Scientists believe that this method of estimating distance is well suited for simulating it using digital devices and can serve as the basis for creating artificial analogues of the eye.

Killer whales could destroy modern marine ecosystems

Killer whales hunting in ice-free Arctic waters could disrupt marine ecosystems, Canada's University of Manitoba reported today. According to scientists, mammals are increasingly exploring northern waters due to the fact that Arctic ice is melting very quickly. As a result, killer whales are integrating into ecosystems that they previously had little connection with.

Researchers are trying to understand what changes will occur in the food chain. How will predators behave in the near future, how will their diet change in connection with new lands being developed, how will smaller mammals behave in changing conditions, and also how can existing species of mammals be preserved in connection with global warming? - all these questions remain unanswered.

So far, scientific observations, largely based on the experience and knowledge of indigenous Canadian peoples, show that in areas occupied by killer whales, smaller marine inhabitants prefer to “bury themselves” in shallow water or, conversely, in depth and wait out the hunting time of large predators.

Nikolai Drozdov is a Soviet and Russian zoologist, professor, and TV presenter. **************************************** ***************************** Nikolai Nikolaevich Drozdov was born on June 20, 1937 in Moscow, in the family of a famous chemist. His father also knew excellent Latin and several other languages, and was interested in paleontology, astronomy, botany, and history. Nikolai also grew up in a corresponding atmosphere. While still at school, on the advice of his father, during the summer holidays he worked as a herdmaster at a stud farm near Moscow. After school, I entered the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University, but after two years I dropped out - I wanted independence, so I started working. At a garment factory, having started as an apprentice, in two years he “grew” to become a master of sewing men’s outerwear. But then he returned to Moscow State University and in 1963 graduated with honors from the Faculty of Geography, in 1964-1966 he studied at the same place in graduate school, in 1968 he defended his candidate’s dissertation, and in 2000, his doctoral dissertation on biogeography. In parallel with his studies, Drozdov has been working there as a researcher at the Department of Biogeography since 1966, as an associate professor since 1979, and as a professor since 2000, being today one of the most authoritative scientists and teachers at Moscow State University. He teaches ecology, ornithology, nature conservation, biogeography of the world, and constantly gives lectures, including abroad.

But Nikolai Nikolaevich is best known as the host of the popular weekly television show “In the Animal World,” where he has been participating since 1968. He started as a speaker (with the presenter A. Zguridi) and scientific consultant for films about animals, and since 1977 he became an author and presenter. The guests of Drozdov's program were such famous scientists and travelers as: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Thor Heyerdahl, Peter Scott, Gerald Durrell, Frederick Rossif, Heinz Zillman... In 1995, the program “In the Animal World” was awarded the TEFI Prize as the best educational program. Nikolai Nikolaevich also repeatedly participated in numerous scientific expeditions, both across the territory of our country and around the world. In 1971-1972 he traveled around Australia, visited many of its regions, and published a book about this journey, “The Flight of the Boomerang,” which was reprinted several times. In 1979 he climbed to the top of Elbrus. He visited the North Pole three times and dived into an ice hole there, twice sank to the bottom of Lake Baikal in a bathyscaphe, made two trips around the world on scientific ships, and hundreds more expeditions, thousands of meetings... In 2003 and 2004, Drozdov took part in the reality show “The Last hero,” having lived both times for more than a month on the uninhabited islands of the Bocas del Toro and Los Perlos archipelagos (Panama).

Nikolai Nikolaevich is also known as the author of more than 200 scientific and popular science articles, about 30 books, textbooks and teaching aids. He is also the author and co-author of many films about nature and animals, the largest of which is the 6-part television film “The Kingdom of the Russian Bear”, created in collaboration with the BBC Natural History Department. The film was a great success in many European countries, the USA and Australia. Drozdov was repeatedly invited to the jury of film festivals of popular science films about animals and nature in Great Britain and Italy. Member of the International Explorers Club, Russian Geographical Society, Russian Ecological Academy (REA), Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS), New York Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Television, International Academies of Patronage, Social Sciences, Culture and Art, Chairman The Board of Trustees of the ICF "Patrons of the Century" - Drozdov was awarded the Order of Friendship, Honor, "For Services to the Fatherland" IV degree, St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow II degree, the Golden Panda Award (also called the Green Oscar), the Kalinga Award "for the popularization of science, the UNESCO medal named after A. Einstein and other awards. He is included in the UNEP Global 500 honorary list of leading ecologists and environmental protection specialists from all countries of the world. Drozdov is a consultant to the UN Secretary-General on ecology, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and a member of the IUCN National Parks Commission, where he still works. Nikolai Nikolaevich is married. His wife, Tatyana Petrovna, works as a biology teacher at the Moscow Palace of Children and Youth Creativity. Their daughters are Nadezhda and Elena. In his free time from work and travel, Drozdov likes to work with animals. Among his favorites are snakes, tarantulas, phalanges, and scorpions. He enjoys horse riding, skiing, swimming in ice holes, and studies yoga. Loves to perform ancient Russian folk songs, romances and modern popular songs in Russian and foreign languages. In the 1990s, he even released a video for the song for the program “In the Animal World,” and in 2005, a disc with his favorite songs. Nikolai Nikolaevich is sure that it is “kindness that will save the world.”

Outstanding zoologists

ABSTRACT ON ZOOLOGY ON THE TOPIC:

"Outstanding Scientists"

Novosibirsk

Plan

1. Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich (1713-1755)

2. Pallas Peter Simon (1741–1811)

3. Roulier Karl (1814-1858)

4. Przhevalsky Nikolai Mikhailovich (1839–1888)

5. Kovalevsky Alexander Onufrievich (1840–1901)

6. Kovalevsky Vladimir Onufrievich (1842–1883)

7. Menzbir Mikhail Alexandrovich (1855–1935)

8. Severtsov Alexey Nikolaevich (1866–1936)

9. Sushkin Petr Petrovich (1868-1928)

10. Ognev Sergei Ivanovich (1886-1951)

11. Zenkevich Lev Alexandrovich (1889-1970)

12. Serebrovsky Alexander Sergeevich (1892–1933)

13. Geptner Vladimir Georgievich (1901–1975)

Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich

Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov (10/18/1713-02/12/1755) - the first Russian academic geographer, participant in the Second Kamchatka Expedition, explorer of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Born in Moscow in the family of a soldier. In 1724–1732 he studied at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (Moscow), then in the philosophy class of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (St. Petersburg). In 1733, he was enrolled as a “student student” in the Academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition and went to Okhotsk. Here he conducted hydrometeorological research, studied ichthyology, and compiled a dictionary of the “Lamut language”. On October 4, 1737, on the ship "Fortuna" he left Okhotsk for Kamchatka, where he was engaged in research for 4 years, making many expeditions around the peninsula. Over the course of four years, he crossed the peninsula in different directions: he walked, rode sledges, rafted down rivers, and climbed mountains. He conducted comprehensive research as a geologist and geographer, as a botanist and zoologist, as a historian and ethnographer, meteorologist and linguist. Krasheninnikov conducted a comprehensive study of Kamchatka in the field of natural sciences (geography, geology, seismology, volcanology), was the first Russian to study tsunamis, made meteorological observations, paid a lot of attention to the ethnography of local peoples (Itelmens, Koryaks, Ainu), compiled aboriginal dictionaries, collected folklore of the inhabitants of Kamchatka . In Nizhne-Kamchatsk, Verkhne-Kamchatsk, Bolsheretsk, based on archives and interviews with local residents, he reconstructed the history of the region. He studied the flora and fauna of Kamchatka, and the ichthyology of rivers and adjacent sea waters. In February 1743, with his young wife Stepanida Tsibulskaya (from Yakutsk), he returned to St. Petersburg. Since 1748, he was the rector of the academic university and its gymnasium. Based on the collected material, he wrote the books “Description of the Kamchatka People”, “On the Conquest of the Kamchatka Land” (1751), and the major work “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” (1756) with the appendix of two maps. This was the first thorough work about Kamchatka. In 1745, Krasheninnikov was elected an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1750 he was appointed professor (academician) of natural history and botany. In 1751, he completed his book “Description of the Land of Kamchatka,” but the author never managed to see it published. On February 25, 1755, Krasheninnikov died, and his book was published in 1756.

His work was the first study in Russian and world scientific literature about Kamchatka, dedicated to its geography, natural history, description of the life and languages of local peoples. “Description of the Land of Kamchatka,” which has not lost its scientific value for more than 200 years, is an example of a comprehensive regional study description of a little-studied territory, an example of the Russian literary language of that time. S.P. died Krasheninnikov in St. Petersburg. In 1989, his name was given to the Kamchatka Regional Library. 10 geographical objects are named after Krasheninnikov, including in Kamchatka - a peninsula, a bay, a mountain, an island; on Karaginsky Island there is a cape, on Paramushir Island there is a bay, a cape, near it there is an underwater valley; on Novaya Zemlya - a peninsula and a cape, in Antarctica - a mountain.

Pallas Peter Simon

In 1767, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences elected Pallas as a full member. Despite his incomplete 27 years, Pallas already had behind him the reputation of a brilliant biologist, paving new paths in the taxonomy of animals. He gave more than 40 years of his scientific life to his new homeland.

Pallas's first big undertaking was an expedition to Eastern Russia and Siberia. From 1768–1774 The scientist explored central Russia, the regions of the Lower Volga region, the Caspian lowland, the Middle and Southern Urals, crossed Siberia, visited Lake Baikal, Transbaikalia, and Altai.

Pallas endured the hardships of the journey with great difficulty. He suffered from dysentery several times, suffered from chronic colitis, rheumatism, and his eyes were constantly inflamed. The 33-year-old scientist returned to St. Petersburg completely exhausted and gray-haired.

Thanks to Pallas, zoology was enriched with new research techniques related to ecology and ethology.

Over six expedition years, unique material was collected on zoology, botany, paleontology, geology, physical geography, economics, history, ethnography, culture and life of the peoples of Russia.

Peter Simon proposed a diagram of the structure of the Ural Mountains, and in 1777 he first compiled a topographical diagram of Siberia. The scientist presented the collected material about the flora and fauna of these territories in the work “Travel to Various Provinces of the Russian Empire.”

Pallas described more than 250 species of animals that lived in Russia, additionally reporting on the distribution, seasonal and geographic variability, migrations, nutrition, and behavior of the animals he described. Pallas often expressed ideas about the physical and geographical factors of their settlement, so he can be considered one of the founders of zoogeography.

In the 1780s, he worked hard to prepare a general compendium of plants in Russia. Due to lack of funds, it was possible to publish only two editions of this extensive work “Flora of Russia”, 1784 and 1788, containing descriptions of about 300 plant species and amazing illustrations.

At the same time, Pallas published articles on geography, paleontology, ethnography, and a two-volume work on the history of the Mongolian people was published. On behalf of Catherine II, Pallas published a comparative dictionary of all languages and dialects of Russia.

In 1793-1794, Pallas undertook his second great journey, this time through the southern provinces of Russia. He explored Crimea. The collections collected during this trip formed the basis of the collections of the Academic Kunstkamera, and some of them ended up at the University of Berlin.

Pallas's works provide detailed information about the climate, rivers, soils, flora and fauna of the Crimean Peninsula, and contain descriptions of many historical places (Mangupa, Ai-Todora, Ayu-Dag, Sudak, etc.). The scientist was the initiator of the foundation of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, vineyards and gardens in the Sudak and Solnechnaya valleys, and founded the Salgirku park in Simferopol. In honor of the geographer, one of the species of Crimean pine was named Pallas pine.

In 1797, Pallas’s work “List of Wild Plants of the Crimea” was published. The author was the first to brilliantly describe the vegetation cover of the Crimean Peninsula and compiled an exhaustive list of 969 species of wild plants for that time.

The scientist was the initiator of the foundation of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, vineyards and gardens in the Sudak and Solnechnaya valleys, and founded the Salgirku park in Simferopol. In honor of the geographer, one of the species of Crimean pine was named Pallas pine.

Roulier Karl

Roulier Karl (1814-1858) - Russian zoologist and doctor of medicine - was born on April 8 (20), 1814 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire.

In 1829, Roulier entered the Moscow branch of the Medical-Surgical Academy, from which he graduated on August 18, 1833 with a silver medal and received the title of physician. On August 6, 1836, he was approved as a tutor (assistant) under G.I. Fischer von Waldheim. I worked with Fischer Roulier for one year. In September 1837, Fisher retired, and the department of natural history passed to Professor I.O. Shikhovsky, and Roulier was appointed associate professor. By this time he had already received his doctorate in medicine. It was awarded to him for his dissertation on bleeding in general and hemorrhoidal bleeding in particular.

On March 5, 1838, the Council of the Academy assigned Roulier to independently teach a course in zoology and mineralogy. At the same time, he was entrusted with the management of the zoological and mineralogical rooms of the Academy, the exhibits of which Roulier widely used for demonstration at his lectures. Even before this - on July 13, 1837 - Roulier was appointed curator of the Museum of Natural History of Moscow University. On November 18, 1837, he was elected a full member of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists. On September 20, 1838, Roulier was elected second secretary of this society. On July 13, 1840, in connection with the move of I.O. Shikhovsky to St. Petersburg Roulier was elected first secretary of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists and remained there until 1851.

At the same time, Roulier began extensive work on studying the history of zoology in Russia. Roulier's work did not see the light of day, but with the help of processing a huge amount of factual zoological material, Roulier was able to quickly understand the main directions of contemporary zoological science and understand the prospects for its development.

On February 28, 1840, the Council of Moscow University invited Roulier to occupy the department of zoology vacated after the death of Professor A.L. Lovetsky. In 1842 he was elected extraordinary, and in 1850 ordinary professor.

In the article “Doubts in Zoology as a Science” (1842), Roulier showed that the main direction of contemporary zoology - taxonomy - does not have reliable scientific principles of classification, that “where there should be the strictest laws, pure arbitrariness governs” and, Consequently, many prevailing ideas in zoology are completely untenable. Accepting the idea of the evolution of organisms, Roulier believed that the evidence put forward by Lamarck, Geoffroy and others was insufficient.

Roulier believed that to prove the variability of species, numerous observations and “historical evidence” - data from geology and paleontology - are necessary. Until 1849, Roulier intensively conducted field geological and paleontological research and studied in detail all the most interesting outcrops of the Moscow basin.

The study of geology and fossil organisms increasingly convinced Roulier of the historical development of the earth's surface and life on it, of the interconnection of natural phenomena and the materiality of the causes that determine the development of the organic world. His classic work “On the Animals of the Moscow Province” and many others were essentially devoted to proving this.

Roulier developed the idea that the evolution of the earth's surface was accompanied by the evolution of the organic world, that changes caused successive changes in organic forms.

Roulier called the path that a researcher of the organic world should follow a comparative-historical method of research. He was deeply confident in the historical development of nature and the organic world, in the obligatory unity of the organism and conditions of existence.

Roulier's significant contribution to the development of the theory of evolution was that he included the interaction between organisms in the concept of environment.

Roulier was the first Russian biologist to begin developing the problems of zoopsychology as a special branch of biology and pointed out the need to create “comparative psychology.” He proved the dependence of the mental activity of animals, their instincts and way of life on the conditions of existence in which a given species has lived throughout history. Roulier was the first to approach the problems of zoopsychology as an integral part of animal ecology.

Roulier opposed considering the instincts and mental activity of animals as phenomena that cannot be scientifically explained. “Either there is no instinct, or there is meaning in it,” - this is how he formulated his approach to the study of instincts, which he understood as reactions developed by a species throughout its history to certain environmental influences.

In 1854, Roulier founded and edited the journal “Bulletin of Natural Sciences” until his death (1858).

Przhevalsky Nikolai Mikhailovich

Przhevalsky Nikolai Mikhailovich (March 31, 1839 – November 20, 1888) - scientist, geographer, traveler, explorer of Central Asia, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1878, major general from 1886.

Born in the village of Kimborovo, Smolensk province, into a noble family. Since childhood I dreamed of traveling. His father, Mikhail Kuzmich, served in the Russian army. His initial teacher was his uncle P. A. Karetnikov, a passionate hunter, who instilled in him this passion and with it a love of nature and wandering.

In 1855 he graduated from the Smolensk gymnasium. After completing the course at the Smolensk gymnasium, Przhevalsky became a non-commissioned officer in the Ryazan infantry regiment in Moscow; Having received the rank of officer, he transferred to the Polotsk regiment, then entered the Academy of the General Staff. At the height of the Sevastopol defense he entered the army as a volunteer, but he did not have to fight. After 5 years of being unloved by Przhevalsky N.M. military service was refused to transfer him to Amur for research work.

In 1861 he entered the Academy of the General Staff, where he completed his first geographical work, “Military Geographical Survey of the Amur Region,” for which the Russian Geographical Society elected him as a member.

In 1863 he completed his academic course and volunteered to go to Poland to suppress the uprising. He served in Warsaw as a teacher of history and geography at a cadet school, where he seriously engaged in self-education, preparing to become a professional researcher of little-studied countries.

In 1866 he was assigned to Eastern Siberia. He made a number of expeditions to the Ussuri region (1867-1869), as well as in 1870-10 -1885 to Mongolia, Tibet and China. Surveyed more than 30 thousand km. the path he traveled, discovered unknown mountain ranges and lakes, a wild camel, a Tibetan bear, and a wild horse named after him. He talked about his travels in books, giving a vivid description of Central Asia: its flora, fauna, climate, peoples who lived in it; collected unique collections, becoming a generally recognized classic of geographical science.

The result of the first trip was the book “Travel in the Ussuri Region” and rich collections for the geographical society. For the first time he described the nature of many regions of Asia, lakes and mountain ranges unknown to Europeans; collected collections of plants and animals, described a wild camel, a wild horse (Przewalski's horse), etc.

Died of typhoid fever (11/20/1888) while preparing to make his fifth expedition to Central Asia. A number of geographical objects, animal and plant species are named after him. In 1892, a monument to N.M. Przhevalsky was unveiled in St. Petersburg. sculptors Shroeder I.N. and Runeberg R.A.

Kovalevsky Alexander Onufrievich

Kovalevsky Alexander Onufrievich (1840–1901) - a famous Russian scientist, was born on November 19, 1840 in the Vorkovo estate, Dinaburg district, Vitebsk province. Alexander Onufrievich entered the Corps of Railway Engineers, but soon left it and entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University as a free student. In 1960, Kovalevsky left for Germany, where he soon began scientific work in the laboratory of the famous chemist Bunsen. Having become interested in zoology, Alexander Onufrievich began to study histology and microscopy techniques with Professor F. Leydig. Returning to St. Petersburg, in 1863 Kovalevsky passed university exams and received the degree of candidate of natural sciences for his work on the anatomy of the sea cockroach.

In 1864, the scientist went abroad again. On the Mediterranean coast A.O. Kovalevsky conducted a study of the larval development of ascidians, which showed similar development to the lancelet larva. The zoologist studied the structure of intestinal-breathers, observed the embryonic development of ctenophores, bryozoans, phoronids, and echinoderms.

In 1865, Kovalevsky defended his master’s thesis: “The history of the development of the lancelet - Amphioxus lanceolatus”, two years later he received a doctorate for the thesis: “On the development of Phoronis”. Having completed a number of comparative embryological studies, Kovalevsky formulated his provisions on the complete correspondence of the germ layers in vertebrates and invertebrates, drawing evolutionary conclusions from this position. For his work on the development of worms and arthropods (1871), the scientist was awarded the Baer Prize of the Academy of Sciences.

Alexander Onufrievich was successively a professor of zoology at Kazan and Kiev universities. In Kyiv, he took an active part in organizing the Society of Natural Scientists, and published his works in its publications. In 1870 - 73, the scientist made scientific expeditions to the Red Sea and Algeria, where, studying the biology of the development of brachiopods, he established their similarity in embryogenesis with bryozoans and annelids. It became clear that Brachiopoda could not be grouped with molluscs. Later, brachiopods were identified as a separate phylum.

In 1874, I.I. Mechnikov persuaded Kovalevsky to move to Novorossiysk (Odessa) University. The scientist often traveled abroad; in Villafranca, a town near Nice, in 1886, with the participation of Kovalevsky, a Russian zoological station was organized; nowadays it is run by the University of Paris. His article “Observation of the development of Coelencerata” (1873) was published, where the author provided data on the development of hydroid polyps and jellyfish, scyphojellyfish and coral polyps.

In Odessa, Kovalevsky continued his embryological observations and began comparative physiological studies of the excretory organs of invertebrates. Kovalevsky A.O., applying the teachings of Mechnikov to explain the processes of dissolution of larval organs and pupae of flies, showed that the larval organs are destroyed and eaten by the blood cells of the pupae, and special accumulations of cells (imaginal primordia) remain intact and subsequently give the organs of an adult insect.

After being elected as an ordinary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1890, A.O. Kovalevsky moved to St. Petersburg, where in 1891 he took the chair of histology at St. Petersburg University. On the Black Sea coast, the scientist founded the Sevastopol Zoological Station, and for a long time was its director.

Since 1897, Kovalevsky was one of the editors of the biological sciences department in the 82-volume Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

In the last years of his life, he spent a lot of time studying leeches, exploring their anatomical structure, physiological characteristics and way of life.

Alexander Onufrievich Kovalevsky died after a cerebral hemorrhage on November 22, 1901 in St. Petersburg.

Kovalevsky Vladimir Onufrievich

Kovalevsky Vladimir Onufrievich (1842–1883) - Russian paleontologist was born on August 12, 1842 in the village of Shustyanka, Vitebsk province. Since 1851 V.O. Kovalevsky studied at the private boarding school V.F. Megina in St. Petersburg. In March 1855 he entered the sixth grade of the School of Law, from which he graduated in 1861. Having become interested in natural science, following his brother (the famous embryologist Alexander Kovalevsky), Vladimir Kovalevsky made a living by translating books on natural history.

In 1861 he left for Germany, then to England, where at first he continued to study legal sciences. At the beginning of 1863 V.O. Kovalevsky went to Poland, where, together with P.I. Jacobi took part in the Polish uprising. Returning to St. Petersburg at the end of the year, Kovalevsky met I.M. Sechenov and Dr. P.I. Lateral. Soon V.O. Kovalevsky abandoned the profession of lawyer, and, again taking up translations, finally became interested in the natural sciences.

In the fall of 1868 V.O. Kovalevsky married Sofya Vasilyevna Korvin-Krukovskaya, who later became an outstanding mathematician. Family circumstances forced the couple to leave Russia for Germany: only there could Sophia go to university.

In 1870, having difficulty moving to London due to the Franco-Prussian War, the Kovalevskys settled near the British Museum. The scientist began an in-depth study of geology in all its directions. He spent a lot of time in the museum library, studying the taxonomy of mollusks, fish, and reptiles. Using the works of Cuvier, Owen, and Blainville, using the skeletons and dental systems available in the Anatomical Museum, Vladimir Onufrievich studied mammals.

One of the most important tasks of paleontology V.O. Kovalevsky believed in clarifying family relationships in the animal world. He traced phylogenetic series, considering them the best evidence of evolution. IN. Kovalevsky made the first attempt to construct a pedigree of ungulates based on the principles of Charles Darwin’s theory. His classic monograph “On anchitheria and the paleontological history of horses” (1873) is devoted to this issue.

In his works, the scientist posed and correctly resolved such problems as monophyly and polyphyly in evolution, divergence of characters (principles of divergence and adaptive radiation). He was concerned about the problem of the relationship between progress and specialization, the role of leaps in the development of the organic world, factors and patterns of extinction of organisms, changes in organs due to changes in functions, the problem of correlations (ratios) in the development of organs and some other patterns of the evolutionary process. V. O. Kovalevsky became a pioneer of the paleoecological trend in paleontology.

Despite the fact that the approach of V.O. Kovalevsky’s approach to the study of paleontological material, based on Darwin’s theory, was fresh and new; world fame came to the scientist only after his death: V.O. Kovalevsky was recognized as the founder of evolutionary paleontology, a new stage in the development of this science.

In November 1874 V.O. Kovalevsky successfully passed the exams for a master's degree at St. Petersburg University and on March 21, 1875, at the same university, defended his dissertation on the topic “Osteology of Anchitherium aurelianense Cuv, as a form elucidating the genealogy of the horse type (Equus).”

On December 22, 1874, the St. Petersburg Mineralogical Society awarded V.O. Kovalevsky prize for his work on Entelodon Gelocus and his dissertation on Anchytheria.

Vladimir Onufrievich established a number of patterns in the evolution of ungulates. Of particular importance is the discovery by Kovalevsky in 1875 of the Law of adaptive and non-adaptive changes. The ecological distribution of almost all living organisms is subject to this law: the relative appropriateness of the structure of the organism is developed in connection with certain changes in the environment as a result of natural selection.

In 1875, due to a deteriorating financial situation, the paleontologist had to resume publishing work and, at the insistence of his wife, begin a number of commercial activities, in particular the construction of apartment buildings and baths. He died in 1883 after a serious illness.

Menzbir Mikhail Alexandrovich

Menzbir Mikhail Alexandrovich (1855–1935) - was born on October 4, 1855 in Tula, Russian Empire, into a poor noble family. His father was a military man; when Mikhail Alexandrovich was 11 years old, he lost his mother, who died of tuberculosis. After graduating from the Tula gymnasium in 1874 with a silver medal, Menzbier entered Moscow University in the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. His teachers were Yakov Andreevich Borzenkov (1825-1883) and Sergei Aleksandrovich Usov (1827-1886), students of K.F. Roulier (1814-1858).

Mikhail Aleksandrovich graduated from the university in 1878, and was left to prepare for a professorship at the Department of Zoology in the laboratory of Ya.A. Borzenkova. Menzbier's first scientific work, “The Ornithological Fauna of the Tula Province” (1879), was devoted to fauna and zoogeography.

In 1879, having met N.A. Severtsov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich began working on his master’s thesis “Ornithological Geography of European Russia”, successfully defending it in 1882.

After defending his dissertation M.A. Menzbier completed a mandatory overseas assignment in Europe. The scientist studied not only zoogeography, but also the comparative anatomy of vertebrate and invertebrate animals.

To work on his monograph, he collected material on birds of prey, became acquainted with the organization of museum work, studied evolutionary problems, explored and described many new subspecies and forms of diurnal raptors. Despite the long period of rejection of the “triple taxonomy” and critical statements about it, Mikhail Aleksandrovich was one of the first in our country to switch to the use of triple (subspecies) nomenclature and subsequently maintained interest in the new taxonomy among his students - zoologists B.M. Zhitkova, S.I. Ogneva, N.A. Bobrinsky, G.P. Dementieva.

Returning to Moscow University in 1884, M.A. Menzbier took the position of associate professor and began teaching. Mikhail Alexandrovich was a brilliant lecturer; he taught courses in zoology, comparative anatomy, and zoogeography.

At the age of 31, Mikhail Aleksandrovich became one of the youngest professors-zoologists in the entire history of Moscow University; he was confirmed as a professor in the department of comparative anatomy and zoology.

The principles of morphological and taxonomic analysis laid down in Mikhail Aleksandrovich’s doctoral dissertation “Comparative osteology of penguins in application to the main divisions of the class of birds” (1885) were later brilliantly developed by one of his talented students - P.P. Sushkin.

In 1914 M.A. Menzbier introduced a number of fundamental amendments and additions to the zoning schemes proposed by N.A. Severtsov, zoogeographical schemes of A. Wallace, having completed his study “Zoological areas of the Turkestan region and the probable origin of the fauna of the latter.”

In the two-volume book “Birds of Russia”, for the first time, a synthesis of all knowledge on the taxonomy, distribution and biology of birds in our country was carried out. This monograph laid down the modern principles and traditions of taxonomy, zoogeography and ecology.

In 1911, in protest against the arbitrariness of the authorities, Menzbier left the university along with other professors and teachers. After the revolution, the scientist returned and became its first rector (1917-1919). In 1896 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, in 1927 he became an honorary member, and in 1929 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Also M.A. Menzbier was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists, and for many years served as its president.

In 1930 M.A. Menzbier, having made a long trip abroad, headed the Zoogeographical Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, established for him.

However, in 1932, a serious illness confined Mikhail Alexandrovich to bed, and on October 10, 1935 he died.

Severtsov Alexey Nikolaevich

Aleksey Nikolaevich Severtsov (1866–1936) – domestic evolutionist, author of studies on the comparative anatomy of vertebrates. Created the theory of morphophysiological and biological progress and regression. In 1889 he graduated from Moscow University, in 1890 he received a gold medal from the university for his essay “A set of information on the organization and history of the development of the gymnofion.” In 1896 he brilliantly defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Metamerism of the head of the electric stingray.” He was a professor at Yuryevsky (1898-1902), Kyiv (1902-1911) and Moscow (1911-1930) universities. In 1930 he organized and headed the Laboratory of Evolutionary Morphology and Animal Ecology (now the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution).

Basic scientific research of A.N. Severtsov are devoted to evolutionary morphology, establishing the laws of the evolutionary process, and problems of ontogenesis. Each theoretical judgment of A.N. Severtsov is a generalization arising from specific, many years of his own research and the research of his students. He devoted a lot of time to studying the metamerism of the head and the origin of the limbs of vertebrates, the evolution of lower vertebrates. As a result, he created a theory of the origin of the five-fingered limb and paired fins in vertebrates, which is now generally accepted in world science.

Based on the analysis of morphological patterns of evolution A.N. Severtsov created two theories: the morphobiological theory of evolutionary paths and the theory of phylembryogenesis. Developing the first theory, A.N. Severtsov came to the conclusion that there are only two main directions of the evolutionary process: biological progress and biological regression. He established four main directions of biological progress: aromorphosis, idioadaptation, cenogenesis, and general degeneration. His teaching on the types of phylogenetic changes in organs and functions and on phylogenetic correlations made a significant contribution to the major general biological problem of the relationship between form and function in the process of evolution. He gave a detailed classification of the methods of phylogenetic changes in organs and proved that the only cause of phylogenetic changes is changes in the environment.

For 26 years, developing the significance of the role of embryonic changes in the process of evolution, A.N. Severtsov created a coherent theory of phylembryogenesis, which highlighted in a new way the problem of the relationship between ontogenesis and phylogeny. This theory develops the position about the possibility of hereditary changes at any stage of ontogenesis and their influence on the structure of descendants.

His ideas and works A.N. Severtsov developed it until his death, that is, until 1936.

Sushkin Petr Petrovich

Sushkin Petr Petrovich (1868-1928) - a prominent Russian zoologist. Widely known as an ornithologist, zoogeographer, anatomist and paleontologist.

Born in Tula into a merchant family on January 27 (February 8), 1868. He received his secondary education at the Tula Classical Gymnasium, after which in 1885 he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University.

Sushkin’s brilliant abilities distinguished him early from among students. Professor M.A. Menzbir (also from Tula), from whom he studied ornithology and comparative anatomy of vertebrates, immediately appreciated the student’s observation skills and other important qualities and tried in every possible way to help him.

In 1892, Sushkin’s first scientific work, “Birds of the Tula Province,” was published.

After graduating from the university in 1889 with a gold medal, Sushkin was left at the department to prepare for the professorship. In 1904 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation.

He carried out extensive teaching work at Moscow and other universities. Students appreciated the extremely high level of his teaching.

P.P. Sushkin early rose to the ranks of major zoologists and earned recognition in his homeland and abroad. He was not only a theorist, but also a first-class field naturalist; he continued his activities as a field researcher and traveler until old age and personally explored the fauna of a vast territory from the Smolensk and Tula provinces to Altai. The trip resulted in numerous observations and rich collections.

In 1921, Sushkin headed the ornithological department of the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences. In 1922, he began work at the Geological Museum of the Academy of Sciences and was able to do a lot for the development of paleontological research.