Zoological Museum

Staff Gallery  •  Museum Website (In Russian)

The Zoological Museum is an exhibition department of the Zoological Institute RAS, originating from the zoological collection of the Academy of Sciences exhibited in the Kustkammer (Chamber of Curiosities). Its main tasks include popularization of scientific achievements in the study of biodiversity of the animal world of Earth. At present, the museum is also one of the scientific subdivisions of the Institute, and specialists of the museum conduct studies in different areas of zoology.

During last 10 years, the museum had organized 3 international exhibitions abroad and also conducted 12 thematic exhibitions within its walls. Specialists of the museum published a series of works devoted to the history and development of museum (and institute) collections during 3000 years of its existence. Fauna, taxonomy, and distribution of modern and fossil fish of seas in the Russian Far East. Descriptions of 15 new fossil fish species, revisions of three modern fish species, and a monograph on fish of the Okhotsk Sea were published. Taxonomic revisions with keys to many species and generic groups of ground beetles (Carabidae) of the world fauna were published, where 5 new genera and 70 new species were described. Original hypotheses on the phylogeny and genesis of this group are assumed. Special attention was paid to the Pleistocene fauna of Eurasia; its study allowed revealing peculiarities of evolution of Pleistocene animal communities and estimating the degree of influence of ancient humans on this process. As a result of works on monitoring of mammal fauna of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Province, material for organization of 13 new specially protected wild territories were represented; an atlas of specially protected territories of St. Petersburg was published together with chapters in Red Data Books of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Province.

Staff

10 employees (3 researchers, 4 collection keepers).

Milena N. Tretiakova (Head of Museum)

Sergey N. Bakkal (Senior Collection Keeper, Candidate of Biological Sciences)

Svetlana V. Malinovskaya (Head of the Reception Sector and Ticket and Cash Service)

Sergey O. Mamonov (Principal Collection Keeper)

Mikhail V. Nazarkin (Senior Researcher, Candidate of Biological Sciences)

Alexander A. Ostroshabov (Senior Collection Keeper)

Elena A. Pavlova (Tour Guide)

Anton S. Rezvyi (Head of the Education Department)

Nadezhda V. Slepkova (Senior Researcher, Candidate of Biological Sciences)

Yulia V. Skuchas (Principal Curator of Zoological Museum)

Yuri V. Starikov (Artist Restorer)

Collections of the Zoological Museum

Collection of animals belonging to different animal phyla represented in the Museum constitutes more than 30 000 exhibits and is the largest in the world in terms of the number of exhibited species. The Museum is annually visited by more than 350 thousand people; guides of the Museum conduct tours on more than 20 biological themes.

Main publications of the Museum staff

Kataev B.M. 2019. A review of the Afrotropical genus Kenyacus (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Harpalini) from the Rwenzori Mountains, with description of seven new species. Zootaxa 4679(3): 463–498. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4679.3.3

Kataev B.M., Kirejtshuk A.G., Manukyan A.R., Anokhin B.A. 2019. Kryzhanovskiana olegi gen. et sp. nov., a remarkable eyeless representative of the tribe Metriini (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussinae) from Upper Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar. Cretaceous Research 103, 104168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2019.06.014

Slepkova N.V. 2019. The Zoological Museum and Institute in Petrograd–Leningrad: from the First World War to the “Great Break” (1914–mid-1930s). Proceedings of the Zoological institute RAS 323(3): 268–312. [Russian] https://doi.org/10.31610/trudyzin/2019.323.3.268

Bublichenko A.G. 2018. Mammals. In: Geltman D.V. et al. (Eds.) Red Data Book of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg: Diton: 507–525. [Russian]

Slepkova N., Yusupova T. 2018. The Zoological Museum of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, 1860s — 1900s: from an academic institute to a public museum. Centaurus 60(4): 294–314.

Pitulko V.V., Tikhonov A.N., Pavlova E.Y., Nikolskiy P.A., Kuper K.E., Polozov R.N. 2016. Early human presence in the Arctic: evidence from 45,000-year-old mammoth remains. Science 351(6270): 260–263. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad0554

Bublichenko A. 2015. Marine mammal observations in the Gulf of Guayaquil on the south coast of Ecuador in May–June 2013. Russian Journal of Theriology 14(1): 57–64.

Slepkova N.V. 2014. The Zoological museum of the Academy of Sciences. The blockade fate of the zoological collection. In: The Museum Front of the Great Patriotic War. Moscow: Helios АРВ: 497–506. [Russian]

Voskoboinikova O.S., Nazarkin M.V., Golubova E.Yu. 2012. Earlier stages of fishes from the northern part of the Okhotsk Sea. St. Petersburg: Zoological Institute RAS. 108 p. (Explorations of the Fauna of the Seas 68(76)). [Russian]

Miller W., Drautz D., Ratan A., Pusey B., Ji Qi, Lesk A., Tomsho L., Packard M., Zhao F., Sher A., Tikhonov A., Raney B., Patterson N., Lindblad-Toh K., Lander E., Knight J., Irzyk G., Fredrikson K., Harkins T., Sheridan S., Pringle T., Schuster S. 2008. Sequencing the nuclear genome of the extinct woolly mammoth. Nature 456: 387–390. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07446

Gilbert T., Tomsho L., Rendulic S., Packard M., Drautz D., Sher A., Tikhonov A., Dalen L., Buigues B., Miller W., Schuster S. 2007. Whole-genome shotgun sequencing of mitochondria from ancient hair shafts. Science 317: 1927–1930. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1146971

Bublichenko J.N., Bublichenko A.G., Romaniuk B.D. 2005. Criteria for assessing the biodiversity of vertebrate animals (for environmental planning for forestry). М.: WWF. 49 p. [Russian]

Fedorov V.V., Chereshnev I.A., Nazarkin M. V., Shestakov A.V., Volobuyev V.V. 2003. Catalogue of marine and fresh-water Fishes of the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. Vladivostok: Dalnauka. 204 p. [Russian]

Museum staff participate in the following grants

Grant Polarforsknings (Sweden). “Arctic Islands 2017 — Wrangel Island & Chaun River” (PI A.N. Tikhonov).

RFBR No. 19-54-51001_NIF. “Neogene fishes of South Korea and their contribution to the study of the North-West Pacific biota development” (PI M.V. Nazarkin).

RFBR No. 17-04-00596_а. “Cenozoic fishes of the Northern Pacific as a forerunner of the recent ichthyofauna” (PI M.V. Nazarkin).