Message about the scientists of zoology. History of zoology in Russia

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

The development of Russian natural science was greatly influenced by the research of M. V. Lomonosov, the brilliant son of the Russian people, who outstripped Western science with his brilliant discoveries. Academician PS Pallas lived in Russia almost all his life. He and his contemporaries I. Lepekhin, Gmelin the Younger and A. Guldenshtedt explored the east and south of the European part of Russia, Western Siberia, Altai, Baikal and Transbaikalia. In the 19th century The zoological survey of Russia was continued by the expeditions of the Academy of Sciences (K. Baer, A. F. Middendorf), the Moscow Societies of Naturalists and Natural Science 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).

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

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

After the appearance of the teachings of Darwin (1859), the established concepts and ideas in all areas of biology underwent a radical revision. The view is no longer considered unchanged. Variety came to be understood as a formative species, animal system as a relation between groups resulting from evolutionary process. The phenomena of similarities in the development and basic plan of the structure of organs (homologues, see below) already known before Darwin received a natural explanation. It became clear the unity of multicellular animals in relation to their cellular structure. In embryology, the theory of germ layers began to develop rapidly (see below); the phenomenon of the 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 have become clear geographical distribution animals and their geological history etc.

Contribution of Serebrovsky A.S. in the development of genetics and breeding in the USSR. Traveler and naturalist P.P. Simon. The contribution of Carl Roulier to the development of the theory of evolution. Scientist and traveler Przhevalsky N.M. Russian paleontologist Kovalevsky V.O. Scientist-zoologist Sushkin P.P.

ABSTRACT ON ZOOLOGY ON THE TOPIC:

"Outstanding Scientists"

Novosibirsk city

Plan

1. Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich (1713-1755)

2. Pallas Peter Simon (1741-1811)

3. Ruler Carl (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 Sergey Ivanovich (1886-1951)

11. Zenkevich Lev Aleksandrovich (1889-1970)

12. Serebrovsky Alexander Sergeevich (1892-1933)

13. Geptner Vladimir Georgievich (1901-1975)

Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich

Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich (10/18/1713-02/12/1755) - the first Russian academic geographer, member of 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 left for Okhotsk. Here he conducted hydrometeorological research, studied ichthyology, 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, having made many expeditions around the peninsula. In four years, he crossed the peninsula in different directions: he walked, rode sleds, rafted down rivers, climbed mountains. He conducted comprehensive research as a geologist and geographer, as a botanist and zoologist, as a historian and ethnographer, as a 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 much 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 on archives and inquiries local residents restored the history of the region. Studied the flora and fauna of Kamchatka, and the ichthyology of the 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 academic university and the gymnasium attached to it. On the basis of the collected material, he wrote the books "Description of the Kamchatka people", "On the conquest of the Kamchatka land" (1751), the capital work "Description of the land of Kamchatka" (1756) with the application of two maps. This was the first thorough work on Kamchatka. In 1745, Krasheninnikov was elected an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1750 he was appointed professor (academician) natural history and botany. In 1751 he completed his book Description of the Land of Kamchatka, but the author never managed to see it printed. February 25, 1755 Krasheninnikov died, and his book was published in 1756. His work was the first in Russian and world scientific literature a study about Kamchatka, devoted 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 country-specific description of a little-explored territory, an example of a Russian literary language 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 the island of Karaginsky - a cape, on the island of Paramushir - a bay, a cape, near it - an underwater valley; on Novaya Zemlya - a peninsula and a cape, in Antarctica - a mountain. Pallas Petr Simon

In 1767, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences elected Pallas as its full member. Despite his incomplete 27 years, Pallas already had the glory of a brilliant biologist behind him, blazing new trails in the taxonomy of animals. He devoted more than 40 years of his scientific life to the new Motherland.

First big deal Pallas was an expedition to Eastern Russia and Siberia. From 1768-1774 scientist researched central Russia, areas of the Lower Volga region, the Caspian lowland, the Middle and Southern Urals, crossed Siberia, visited Baikal, Transbaikalia, Altai.

Pallas had a hard time enduring the hardships of the journey. Several times he suffered from dysentery, 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 methods of research related to ecology and ethology.

For six expedition years, unique material has been collected on zoology, botany, paleontology, geology, physical geography, economy, history, ethnography, culture and life of the peoples of Russia.

Peter Simon proposed a structure diagram Ural mountains, in 1777 for the first time compiled a topographical scheme of Siberia. Collected material about the animal and flora these territories, the scientist outlined in the work "Travel to different provinces of the Russian Empire."

Pallas described more than 250 species of animals that lived on the territory of Russia, additionally reporting on the distribution, seasonal and geographical 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 on the preparation of a general code of plants in Russia. Due to lack of funds, only two editions of this extensive work "Flora of Russia", 1784 and 1788, containing descriptions of about 300 plant species and amazing illustrations, were published.

At the same time, Pallas published articles on geography, paleontology, ethnography, a two-volume work on history was published. Mongolian people. On behalf of Catherine II, Pallas published comparative dictionary 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 the Crimea. The collections collected during this trip formed the basis of the collections of the academic cabinet of curiosities, and part of them ended up in the University of Berlin.

Pallas's works provide detailed information about climate, rivers, soils, flora and fauna. Crimean peninsula, contains descriptions of many historical places (Mangupa, Ai-Todor, Ayu-Daga, Sudak, etc.). The scientist initiated the laying of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, vineyards and orchards in the Sudak and Solnechnaya valleys, founded the Salgirka park in Simferopol. In honor of the scientist-geographer, one of the species of the Crimean pine was named the Pallas pine.

In 1797, Pallas's work "List of wild plants of the Crimea" was published. The author for the first time brilliantly described the vegetation cover of the Crimean peninsula, compiled an exhaustive list of wild plants of 969 species for that time.

The scientist initiated the laying of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, vineyards and orchards in the Sudak and Solnechnaya valleys, founded the Salgirka park in Simferopol. In honor of the scientist-geographer, one of the species of the Crimean pine was named the Pallas pine.

Ruler Carl

Ruler 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 Medical-Surgical Academy, which on August 18, 1833 he graduated with a silver medal and received the title of doctor. On August 6, 1836, he was approved as a tutor (assistant) under G. I. Fischer von Waldheim. Roulier worked with Fischer for one year. In September 1837, Fischer retired, and the Department of Natural History passed to Professor I.O. Shikhovsky, and Roulier was appointed adjunct professor. By this time, he had already received a doctorate in medicine. She was awarded to him for his dissertation on bleeding in general and hemorrhoidal in particular.

On March 5, 1838, the Council of the Academy instructed Roulier independent reading course of 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 that - on July 13, 1837 - Roulier was appointed curator of the Natural History Museum of Moscow University. On November 18, 1837, he was elected a full member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists. On September 20, 1838, Roulier was elected second secretary of this society. On July 13, 1840, in connection with the relocation of I.O. Shikhovsky in St. Petersburg, Rulye was elected the first secretary of the Moscow Society of Naturalists and stayed with him until 1851.

At the same time, Roulier began a great deal of work on the study of the history of zoology in Russia. Roulier's work did not see the light of the 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 take the chair of zoology that had been 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 - systematics - does not have reliable scientific principles classification that “where there should be the strictest laws, pure arbitrariness guides” and, consequently, many ideas prevailing in zoology are completely untenable. Accepting the idea of the evolution of organisms, Roulier believed that the evidence for it, put forward by Lamarck, Geoffroy and others, was insufficient.

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

The study of geology and fossil organisms increasingly convinced Roulier of the historical development earth's surface and life on it, in the presence of the relationship between natural phenomena and the materiality of the causes that determine the development organic world. His classic work "On the Animals of the Moscow Province" and many others were essentially devoted to the proof of 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 successive changes in organic forms.

Roulier called the path that the researcher of the organic world must take the comparative-historical method of research. He was deeply convinced of the historical development of nature and the organic world, of the obligatory unity of the organism and the conditions of existence.

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

Rul'e was the first Russian biologist who began developing the problems of zoopsychology as special industry biology, pointed out the need to create a "comparative psychology". He proved dependency mental activity animals, their instincts and way of life from the conditions of existence in which this species has lived throughout history. Roulier was the first to approach the problems of zoopsychology as an integral part of animal ecology.

Roulier opposed the consideration of the instincts and mental activity of animals as phenomena that are not amenable to scientific explanation. “Either there is no instinct, or there is a sense 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 until his death (1858) edited the journal "Bulletin of Natural Sciences".

PRzhevalsky Nikolai Mikhailovich

Przhevalsky Nikolai Mikhailovich (03/31/1839 - 11/20/1888) - scientist, geographer, traveler, explorer of Central Asia, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1878, major general since 1886.

Born in the village of Kimborovo, Smolensk province in noble family. I have dreamed of traveling since childhood. 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, along with it, a love for nature and wandering.

In 1855 he graduated from the Smolensk gymnasium. At the end of the course at the Smolensk gymnasium, Przhevalsky decided in Moscow as a non-commissioned officer in the Ryazan infantry regiment; received officer rank, moved to the Polotsk regiment, then entered the academy general staff. In the midst of Sevastopol defense entered the army as a volunteer, but he did not have to fight. After 5 years of the unloved Przhevalsky N.M. military service received a refusal to transfer him to the Amur for research work.

In 1861 he entered the Academy of the General Staff, where he completed his first geographical work "Military Geographical Review of the Amur Territory", for which the Russian Geographical Society elected him a member.

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

In 1866 he was appointed 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, a wild horse named after him. He told 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 universally recognized classic of geographical science.

The result of the first trip was the book "Journey in the Ussuri Territory" 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.

He died of typhoid fever (11/20/1888), preparing to make his fifth expedition to Central Asia. A number of geographical objects, species of animals and plants are named after him. In 1892, a monument to Przhevalsky N.M. was opened in St. Petersburg. sculptors Schroeder I.N. and Runeberg R.A.

ToOvalevsky Alexander Onufrievich

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

In 1864, the scientist again went abroad. On the coast mediterranean sea A.O. Kovalevsky conducted a study of the larval development of ascidians, which showed a similar development with 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 a doctorate degree for his dissertation: "On the development of Phoronis." Having completed a number of comparative embryological studies, Kovalevsky formulated his provisions on the complete correspondence of 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 professor of zoology at Kazan and Kiev universities. In Kyiv he received Active participation in the organization of the Society of Naturalists, and published his works in its publications. In 1870-73, the scientist made scientific expeditions to the Red Sea and Algeria, where, studying the developmental biology of brachiopods, he established their similarity in embryogenesis with bryozoans and annelids. It became clear that Brachiopoda could not be combined with molluscs. Later, brachiopods were identified as a separate type.

In 1874, I.I. Mechnikov persuaded Kovalevsky to transfer to the 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, in our time it is run by the University of Paris. His article "Observation of the development of Coelencerata" (1873) was published, where the author cited data on the development of hydroid polyps and jellyfish, scyphomedusa 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 the larval organs and pupae of flies, showed that the larval organs are destroyed and eaten by the blood cells of the pupa, and special accumulations of cells (imaginal rudiments) remain intact and subsequently give the organs of an adult insect.

After being elected as an ordinary academician Imperial Academy 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 department biological sciences in the 82-volume Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

In the last years of his life, he studied a lot of leeches, I study them anatomical structure, physiological characteristics and lifestyle.

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 Petersburg. In March 1855 he entered the sixth grade of the School of Law, from which he graduated in 1861. Fascinated by natural science after his brother (the famous embryologist Alexander Kovalevsky), Vladimir Kovalevsky earned a living by translating books on natural science.

In 1861 he left for Germany, then to England, where at first he continued to study law. At the beginning of 1863, V.O. Kovalevsky went to Poland, where, together with P.I. Jacobi participated in 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 a lawyer, and, again taking up translations, he finally became interested in the natural sciences.

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

In 1870, having moved with difficulty to London because of the Franco-Prussian War, the Kovalevskys settled near 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, engaged in the taxonomy of mollusks, fish, and reptiles. Using the works of Cuvier, Owen, and Blainville, using the skeletons available in the Anatomical Museum and the dental system, Vladimir Onufrievich studied mammals.

One of critical tasks paleontology V.O. Kovalevsky considered the clarification of kinship in the animal kingdom. He traced phylogenetic series, considering them to be the best evidence for evolution. IN. Kovalevsky made the first attempt to build a pedigree of ungulates based on the principles of Charles Darwin's theory. His classic monograph “On Anchiteria 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, the divergence of signs (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, the 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 V.O. Kovalevsky to the study of paleontological material, based on the theory of Darwin, 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 he defended his thesis on the topic "Osteology of Anchitherium aurelianense Cuv, as a form that clarifies the genealogy of the type of horse (Equus)".

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

Vladimir Onufrievich established a number of regularities 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 expediency of the structure of an organism is developed in connection with certain changes in the environment as a result of natural selection.

In 1875, due to the worsening financial position, the paleontologist had to resume publishing work and, at the insistence of his wife, begin a number of commercial cases, in particular, the construction of tenement houses and baths. In 1883, after a serious illness, he died.

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 in the military; 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, Menzbir entered Moscow University in the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. His teachers were Yakov Andreevich Borzenkov (1825-1883) and Sergey Aleksandrovich Usov (1827-1886), students of K.F. Ruler (1814-1858).

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

In 1879, having met N.A. Severtsov, Mikhail Alexandrovich began to work on his master's thesis "Ornithological Geography of European Russia", successfully defending it in 1882.

After defending the dissertation M.A. Menzbier undertook an obligatory foreign business trip to Europe. The scientist was engaged not only in zoogeography, but also in the comparative anatomy of vertebrates and invertebrates.

To work on his monograph, he collected material on birds of prey, got acquainted with the setting of the museum business, studied evolutionary problems, explored and described many new subspecies and forms of diurnal predators. 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 the triple (subspecies) nomenclature and later supported the 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 up the post of assistant professor and began teaching activities. Mikhail Alexandrovich was a brilliant lecturer, he led lecture courses in zoology, comparative anatomy, zoogeography.

At the age of 31, Mikhail Alexandrovich became one of the youngest professors of zoology in the history of Moscow University, he was approved as a professor at the Department of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology.

The principles of morphological and taxonomic analysis laid down in Mikhail Alexandrovich'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 made a number of fundamental amendments and additions to the zonal zoning schemes proposed by N.A. Severtsov, zoogeographic schemes of A. Wallace, completing his study "Zoological sites 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 systematics, distribution and biology of birds in our country was carried out. This monograph contains modern principles and traditions of taxonomy, zoogeography and ecology.

In 1911, in protest against the arbitrariness of the authorities, along with other professors and teachers, Menzbier left the university. 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. Menzbir was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, and for many years was its president.

In 1930 M.A. Menzbir having done a great trip abroad, headed the Zoogeographic Laboratory of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR established for him.

At the same time, in 1932, a serious illness chained Mikhail Alexandrovich to bed, and on October 10, 1935 he died.

Severtsov Alexey Nikolaevich

Severtsov Aleksey Nikolaevich (1866-1936) - Russian evolutionist, author of studies on 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 from the university gold medal. 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), Kiev (1902-1911) and Moscow (1911-1930) universities. In 1930 he organized and headed the Laboratory of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals (now the A.N. Severtsov Institute for Problems of Ecology and Evolution).

Main Scientific research A.N. Severtsov are devoted to evolutionary morphology, the establishment of the laws of the evolutionary process, and the problems of ontogenesis. Each theoretical judgment of A.N. Severtsov is a generalization arising from specific long-term studies of his own and studies of his students. He devoted a lot of time to the study of head metamerism and the origin of the limbs of vertebrates, the evolution of lower vertebrates. As a result, he created the 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 the morphological patterns of evolution, A.N. Severtsov created two theories: the morphobiological theory of the paths of evolution 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, general degeneration. His teaching about the types of phylogenetic changes in organs and functions, about phylogenetic correlations, made a significant contribution to the largest 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, 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 evolutionary process, A.N. Severtsov created a coherent theory of phylembryogenesis, which in a new way highlighted the problem of the relationship between ontogenesis and phylogenesis. This theory develops the position on 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 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 merchant family January 27 (February 8), 1868. He received his secondary education in Tula classical gymnasium, after which in 1885 he entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University.

Sushkin's brilliant abilities set him apart from the students early on. Professor M. A. Menzbir (also from Tula), from whom he studied ornithology and comparative anatomy of vertebrates, immediately appreciated observation and other important qualities student and did his best 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 a professorship. In 1904 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation.

Conducted a lot of teaching work at Moscow and other universities. Students appreciated the extremely high level of his teaching.

P.P. Sushkin advanced early into the ranks of major zoologists and earned recognition at home and abroad. He was not only a theoretician, but also a first-class field naturalist, continued his activities as a field researcher and traveler until old age and personally explored the fauna on a vast territory from the Smolensk and Tula provinces to Altai. The result of the trip was 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.

In 1923 P.P. Sushkin was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His scientific legacy includes 103 works.

P.P. Sushkin died suddenly of pneumonia on September 17, 1928. He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Smolensk cemetery.

Ognev Sergey Ivanovich

Ognev Sergey Ivanovich (5.11.1886-20.12.1951) - Soviet zoologist, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1947). Outstanding spine zoologist, head of the Moscow school of theriology in 1930-1940. Comes from a family of hereditary Moscow intelligentsia. He graduated from Moscow University in 1910, left at the Department of Zoology (with which at that time the Zoological Museum was a single entity) as an assistant to prof. G.A. Kozhevnikov.

He read a number of courses at the department, in 1926 he received the title of associate professor, in 1928 - the title of professor, in 1935 - doctor of science.

All of it professional activity was associated with scientific gathering and the study of theriological collections. He was one of the first in Russia to collect serial materials on small mammals.

Already in 1910, on the basis of these collections, his first solid monograph "Mammals of the Moscow Province" was published, which laid the foundations for the fauna-ecological research direction of both Ognev himself and his students. S.I. Ognev traveled a lot around the country in order to study local theriofauna. Since the mid 1920s. he began to collect his personal collection of small mammals, which later became one of the largest collections of its kind in Russia and was acquired by the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University.

The main work of his whole life was a multi-volume summary of the fauna and ecology of mammals in Russia and adjacent territories: the first two volumes were called "Animals of Eastern Europe and North Asia", the next five -" Animals of the USSR and adjacent countries.

In addition, S.I. Ognev, being the head of the Department of Zoology at Moscow State University, published a number of textbooks, including the fundamental work "Vertebrate Zoology". The main works are also on the taxonomy and faunistics of mammals; works on the fauna of birds, the history of zoology, biogeography, evolution of animals. Conducted field research in Central Russia, in the Caucasus, the Urals, in Semirechye and Turkmenistan.

Described a number of new species of mammals, paid much attention to the conservation of nature. The founder of the Moscow school of theriologists - specialists in mammals, among them: S.S. Turov, V.G. Geptner, A.N. Formozov, N.A. Bobrinsky, A.G. Tomilin and others. State Prize USSR (1942, 1951). Awarded with the Order Lenin and medals. He died after a serious illness in 1951.

ZenkevichLev Aleksandrovich

Lev Aleksandrovich Zenkevich (1889-1970) - born in Tsarev Astrakhan province Russian Empire in the family of a veterinarian. In 1916 he graduated from the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. After graduation, he was left at the university to prepare for a professorship. From 1930 until his death, he headed the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy of Invertebrates at Moscow University.

The whole life of L.A. Zenkevich was devoted to the study of marine biology. He was one of the founders of the first oceanographic institution in our country - the Floating Marine Scientific Institute. He took direct participation in the construction and equipment of the Perseus, the pioneer of our research fleet, and then led complex expeditions on it in the Barents, White, and then in the Kara Seas. While working in the Barents Sea, for the first time on the scale of the whole sea, he applied quantitative methods for studying the benthic fauna.

In the 30s, the attention of L.A. Zenkevich is attracted by our south seas and first of all the Caspian Sea, exceptionally rich in valuable sturgeon fish. Studies of the benthic fauna of the Northern Caspian, which showed its relative poverty, are cited by L.A. Zenkevich to the search for ways to increase the biological productivity of this sea. Together with Ya.A. Birshtein, he developed a project for the acclimatization of valuable food invertebrates from the Sea of Azov in the Caspian Sea, which was successfully implemented.

During the Patriotic War, which interrupted expeditionary research on the seas, L.A. Zenkevich is engaged in experimental and theoretical development problems of evolution motor system animals.

His scientific background is great. He has published more than 300 scientific articles in magazines and collections, over 10 monographs and textbooks, a lot of popular articles and correspondence. He acted as the editor of seven volumes of Proceedings of the Institute of Oceanology and a number of thematic collections of scientific articles. His works cover a wide range of topics in anatomy, taxonomy and ecology. aquatic organisms, biocenology and productivity of marine fauna and flora, their quantitative distribution and biogeography. In recent years Special attention he paid attention to the problems of studying the deep-sea fauna and its origin in connection with the problem of the antiquity of the ocean as aquatic environment. Theoretical works related to the development of ideas about the biological structure of the ocean and about oceanic ecosystems are singled out. From applied research, it should be noted works on the use of biological and mineral resources oceans and seas, forecasts on the prospects for the development of fisheries, the development of mariculture, and much more. Of exceptional importance is his monograph "Biology of the Seas of the USSR", which in 1965 was awarded the Lenin Prize. Being a high-class zoologist, L.A. Zenkevich acted as a pioneer in the field of broad comprehensive studies of marine fauna. He significantly expanded the concept of the biological productivity of a reservoir, introduced a quantitative method into the study of fish nutrition, which caused literally scientific revolution in marine biological research. Developing the theoretical problems of oceanology, he proceeded from the concept of the ocean as a single whole, where the physical, chemical, biological processes interconnected and interdependent. His concept biological structure ocean has become methodological basis perennial biological research Institute of Oceanology in the World Ocean. Years of life of L.A. Zenkevich fell on a difficult period in the history of our country. He headed the department for 40 years (from 1930 to 1970) and one can imagine how incredibly difficult it was to keep the department and not lose face even in the years Stalinist repressions, not during the revelry of Lysenkoism! All my life L.A. Zenkevich devoted himself to science, he worked for his country and for world science. His scientific and organizational activities are extensive. He was the founder and permanent president since 1952 of the All-Union Hydrobiological Society, the organizer of the Interdepartmental Oceanographic Commission under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1951, the vice-president of the Moscow Society of Nature Testers since 1956, the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal "Oceanology" since 1961, a member of the editorial board many other scientific journals, including foreign ones. His merits in science were awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, the medal "For Valiant Labor", the Lomonosov Prize of Moscow State University (1954), the Gold Medal. F.P. Litke of the Geographical Society of the USSR (1956), Gold Medal of Prince Albert I of Monaco - the highest award French Oceanographic Institute (1959). He was the recognized head of Russian oceanology, an outstanding biologist, the founder of an extensive school of Russian marine biologists, the largest organizer of research on the World Ocean, a scientist of exceptional breadth and versatility, a Man with a capital M. The marginal underwater swell bordering the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in pacific ocean and studied in the expeditions of the "Vityaz", was named after him.

AT post-war years with the advent of the new research vessel "Vityaz" begins new stage in studies of the biology of the World Ocean, in which L.A. Zenkevich has a leading role. He led a complex multi-year oceanographic expedition of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which covered almost the entire World Ocean with research. He became the initiator, organizer and participant of deep-sea research of oceanic fauna, in particular in the area of the Kuril-Kamchatka depression, where depths of 9.5 km were explored.

L.A. Zenkevich was an excellent lecturer and teacher. He laid the foundations of the system of zoological education in our country, which is still in operation.

Witherebrovsky Alexander Sergeevich

Serebrovsky Alexander Sergeevich (1892-1933) - was born in Tula, Russian Empire in 1892. Serebrovsky belonged to the group of those biologists who had an enormous influence on the development of genetics and breeding in the USSR. Research A.S. Serebrovsky began in the first years after the Great October Socialist Revolution and continued until his very premature death. In addition to 120 published works, about 30 unpublished works remain in his scientific archive, including several major monographs.

Circle of interests of A.S. Serebrovsky as a researcher was very broad - from questions general biology and evolutionary doctrine, to specific questions of selection certain types farm animals.

At the same time, he was a very strong analyst and mathematician. Serebrovsky's mathematical warehouse of thought was revealed even in his first works, for example, in the article "Experiment statistical analysis sex" (1921). "Polygons with foci and their significance for biometrics" (1925), etc.

Having begun the development of the genetics of domestic chicken, he inevitably faced the need to develop a theory of genetic analysis, those issues that are now included in the so-called mathematical or statistical genetics. There were very few works in this area at that time, and A. S. Serebrovsky had to go largely on his own, original paths. The results of AS Serebrovsky's long work on the development of the theory of genetic analysis are reported in the monograph "Genetic Analysis".

In 1928, the theory of the indivisibility of the gene underwent its first limitation. Immediately after the discovery of the mutagenic effect of X-rays, they were used in many laboratories around the world to obtain mutations. In the laboratory of Serebrovsky, evidence was obtained that the gene is not an indivisible genetic structure, but is a region of the chromosome, separate sections which can mutate independently of each other. This phenomenon was called Serebrovsky stepped allelomorphism.

Having developed a system that allows one to quantify the result of each mutation, Serebrovsky, Dubinin and other authors at the same time revealed the phenomenon of adding one mutant gene to another. At the same time, the impaired function of one gene was corrected normal function another. The second gene, in turn, could be defective in another region, normal in the first gene. This phenomenon was subsequently rediscovered in microorganisms and was called complementation.

In the 30s, A.S. Serebrovsky promoted the ideas of the so-called genogeography, developed its methods, and himself conducted several genogeographic studies. Unfortunately, these methods are now forgotten.

Serebrovsky was engaged in one of the main methods for studying the effectiveness of natural selection, the analysis of complex protective devices (body shape, color, behavior, etc.). The presence of such adaptations testified that their evolution could not be explained either by the direct influence of the environment, or by the exercise or non-exercise of organs, nor reduced to a single mutation. It could not be understood only on the basis of the recognition of the complex relationship between predators and their prey, in which the former play the role of culling the latter. A brilliant analysis of these interrelations was given by Serebrovsky in 1929 in the article "The Experience of a Qualitative Characterization of the Evolutionary Process".

Geptner Vladimir Georgievich

Geptner Vladimir Georgievich (06/22/1901-07/05/1975) - June 22, 1901 in Moscow, in a Russified German family. His father was an accountant. After graduating from high school in 1919, he immediately entered the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. Since 1925 - in graduate school at famous figures conservation professors GA. Kozhevnikov and S.I. Ogneva. Since 1929, he has been working at the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, participating in expeditions in Central Asia. From 1934 - until the end of his days - Professor of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology of Moscow State University.

Prominent zoologists

ABSTRACT ON ZOOLOGY ON THE TOPIC:

"Outstanding Scientists"

Novosibirsk city

Plan

1. Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich (1713-1755)

2. Pallas Peter Simon (1741-1811)

3. Ruler Carl (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 Sergey Ivanovich (1886-1951)

11. Zenkevich Lev Aleksandrovich (1889-1970)

12. Serebrovsky Alexander Sergeevich (1892–1933)

13. Geptner Vladimir Georgievich (1901-1975)

Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich

Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich (10/18/1713-02/12/1755) - the first Russian academic geographer, member of 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 left for Okhotsk. Here he conducted hydrometeorological research, studied ichthyology, 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, having made many expeditions around the peninsula. In four years, he crossed the peninsula in different directions: he walked, rode sleds, rafted down rivers, climbed mountains. He conducted comprehensive research as a geologist and geographer, as a botanist and zoologist, as a historian and ethnographer, as a 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 much 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, he restored the history of the region based on archives and inquiries from local residents. 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 the gymnasium attached to it. On the basis of the collected material, he wrote the books "Description of the Kamchatka people", "On the conquest of the Kamchatka land" (1751), the capital work "Description of the land of Kamchatka" (1756) with the application of two maps. This was the first thorough work on 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 printed. 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, devoted 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 description of a little-explored 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 the island of Karaginsky - a cape, on the island of Paramushir - a bay, a cape, near it - an underwater valley; on Novaya Zemlya - a peninsula and a cape, in Antarctica - a mountain.

Pallas Petr Simon

Pallas' 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 Baikal, Transbaikalia, and Altai.

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

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

Peter Simon proposed a scheme for the structure of the Ural Mountains, in 1777 for the first time he compiled a topographic scheme of Siberia. The collected material about the flora and fauna of these territories, the scientist outlined in the work "Travel to different provinces of the Russian Empire."

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.

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-Todor, Ayu-Daga, Sudak, etc.). The scientist initiated the laying of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, vineyards and orchards in the Sudak and Solnechnaya valleys, founded the Salgirka park in Simferopol. In honor of the scientist-geographer, one of the species of the Crimean pine was named the Pallas pine.

Ruler Carl

Ruler 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 Department of the Medico-Surgical Academy, from which he graduated on August 18, 1833 with a silver medal and received the title of doctor. On August 6, 1836, he was approved as a tutor (assistant) under G. I. Fischer von Waldheim. Roulier worked with Fischer for one year. In September 1837, Fischer retired, and the Department of Natural History passed to Professor I.O. Shikhovsky, and Roulier was appointed adjunct professor. By this time, he had already received a doctorate in medicine. She was awarded to him for his dissertation on bleeding in general and hemorrhoidal in particular.

On March 5, 1838, the Council of the Academy instructed Roulier to independently read 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 that - on July 13, 1837 - Roulier was appointed curator of the Natural History Museum of Moscow University. On November 18, 1837, he was elected a full member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists. On September 20, 1838, Roulier was elected second secretary of this society. On July 13, 1840, in connection with the relocation of I.O. Shikhovsky in St. Petersburg, Rulye was elected the first secretary of the Moscow Society of Naturalists and stayed with him until 1851.

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

The study of geology and fossil organisms convinced Roulier more and more of the historical development of the earth's surface and life on it, of the interconnection between 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 the proof of 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 successive changes in organic forms.

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

Roulier was the first Russian biologist who began 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 this species has been throughout history. Roulier was the first to approach the problems of zoopsychology as an integral part of animal ecology.

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

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 since 1878, major general since 1886.

Born in the village of Kimborovo, Smolensk province, into a noble family. I have dreamed of traveling since childhood. 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, along with it, a love for nature and wandering.

In 1855 he graduated from the Smolensk gymnasium. At the end of the course at the Smolensk gymnasium, Przhevalsky decided in Moscow as a non-commissioned officer in the Ryazan infantry regiment; having received an officer's rank, he moved to the Polotsk regiment, then entered the General Staff Academy. 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 the unloved Przhevalsky N.M. military service was refused to transfer him to the Amur for research work.

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, a wild horse named after him. He told 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 universally recognized classic of geographical science.

Kovalevsky Alexander Onufrievich

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

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

Alexander Onufrievich was successively professor of zoology at Kazan and Kiev universities. In Kyiv, he took an active part in the organization of the Society of Naturalists, 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 combined with molluscs. Later, brachiopods were identified as a separate type.

After being elected 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 studied a lot of leeches, exploring their anatomical structure, physiological characteristics and lifestyle.

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 Petersburg. In March 1855 he entered the sixth grade of the School of Law, from which he graduated in 1861. Fascinated by natural science after his brother (the famous embryologist Alexander Kovalevsky), Vladimir Kovalevsky earned a living by translating books on natural science.

In 1861 he left for Germany, then to England, where at first he continued to study law. At the beginning of 1863, V.O. Kovalevsky went to Poland, where, together with P.I. Jacobi participated 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 a lawyer, and, again taking up translations, he finally became interested in the natural sciences.

In 1870, having moved with difficulty to London because of 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, engaged in the taxonomy of mollusks, fish, and reptiles. Using the works of Cuvier, Owen, and Blainville, using the skeletons available in the Anatomical Museum and the dental system, Vladimir Onufrievich studied mammals.

One of the most important tasks of paleontology V.O. Kovalevsky considered the clarification of kinship in the animal kingdom. He traced phylogenetic series, considering them to be the best evidence for evolution. IN. Kovalevsky made the first attempt to build a pedigree of ungulates based on the principles of Charles Darwin's theory. His classic monograph “On Anchiteria and the Paleontological History of Horses” (1873) is devoted to this issue.

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

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

Menzbir Mikhail Alexandrovich

Menzbir Mikhail Alexandrovich (1855–1935) - born October 4, 1855 in Tula, Russian Empire, into a poor noble family. His father was in the military; 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, Menzbir entered Moscow University in the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. His teachers were Yakov Andreevich Borzenkov (1825-1883) and Sergey Aleksandrovich Usov (1827-1886), students of K.F. Ruler (1814-1858).

In 1879, having met N.A. Severtsov, Mikhail Alexandrovich began to work on his master's thesis "Ornithological Geography of European Russia", successfully defending it in 1882.

To work on his monograph, he collected material on birds of prey, got acquainted with the setting of museum work, studied evolutionary problems, investigated and described many new subspecies and forms of diurnal predators. 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 the triple (subspecies) nomenclature and later supported the 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 up the position of assistant professor and began teaching. Mikhail Aleksandrovich was a brilliant lecturer; he taught lecture courses on zoology, comparative anatomy, and zoogeography.

In the two-volume book “Birds of Russia”, for the first time, a synthesis of all knowledge on the systematics, 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 1930 M.A. Menzbir, 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 chained Mikhail Alexandrovich to bed, and on October 10, 1935 he died.

Severtsov Alexey Nikolaevich

Severtsov Aleksey Nikolaevich (1866–1936) – domestic evolutionist, author of studies on comparative anatomy of vertebrates. Created the theory of morphophysiological and biological progress and regression. In 1889 he graduated from Moscow University, and in 1890 he received a gold medal from the university for his work "A summary of information on the organization and history of the development of the hymnophion". 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), Kiev (1902-1911) and Moscow (1911-1930) universities. In 1930 he organized and headed the Laboratory of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals (now the A.N. Severtsov Institute for Problems of Ecology and Evolution).

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

His ideas and works A.N. Severtsov developed 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 in 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 department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University.

Sushkin's brilliant abilities set him apart from the students early on. Professor M. A. Menzbir (also from Tula), from whom he studied ornithology and comparative anatomy of vertebrates, immediately appreciated the observation and other important qualities of the student and did his best 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 a professorship. In 1904 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation.

Conducted a lot of teaching work at Moscow and other universities. Students appreciated the extremely high level of his teaching.

Zoology is one of the classical biological sciences. Its origin, apart from the initial accumulation of information about animals, is associated with ancient times. Great scientist and thinker Ancient Greece Aristotle, considered the founder of a number of sciences, in the IV century. BC e. for the first time he systematized the accumulated knowledge about animals and divided all the species known to him into two groups - animals with blood and animals without blood. To the first group he assigned vertebrates (animals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish), to the second - invertebrates (insects, spiders, crayfish, mollusks, worms). Aristotle was the first to put forward the idea of the subordination of parts of the body, which would be embodied much later in the doctrine of correlations.

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

Fall of the Roman Empire and establishment of dominance christian church led to the decline of the sciences. In this era, called the Middle Ages, the pursuit of natural sciences was not only not encouraged, but directly persecuted. Only biblical dogmas about the creation of the world were recognized.

The accumulation of zoological knowledge resumes only in the Renaissance that followed the Middle Ages, from the 15th century. Scientists were mainly interested in the structure of the body, therefore greatest successes have been achieved in the field of anatomy. The famous artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), studying bones and joints, established the similarity in the structure of the bones of the horse's leg and that of man, despite their outward 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.

The natural history of the Renaissance reached its heyday in the writings of the Swiss Konrad Gesner (1516-1565), who reported a lot of information about animals, although often not original, but drawn from the works of ancient scientists. In the XVI-XVII centuries. doctors made a great contribution to the study of animal anatomy, as well as humans. The greatest 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 organs of reproduction. He owns a description of the tubes going from the ovaries to the uterus. Bartolomeo Eustichio (1510-1574) discovered the tube connecting the ear to the throat. 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 the same direction. Harvey's 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 spermatozoa, but the main thing was the discovery of protozoa, made when looking at a drop of water under a microscope. In the same period, the English scientist Robert Hooke (1635-1703) performed a number of fine microscopic works and in 1665 published the book "Micro-graphy", in which the cell was depicted for the first time in the history of biology. This discovery had important implications.

AT late XVII- the first half of the XVIII 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 the book Systematic Review of Animals, published in 1693, Ray proposed a classification of animals based on the totality external signs, for example, by the presence of claws and teeth. So, 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 Ray'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 The 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. Close species Linnaeus grouped into genera, close genera into orders, and close orders into classes. All famous species animals 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 is the name of the species. The form of binary (double) nomenclature has survived to this day. Linnaeus stood for 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 XVIII - early XIX in. 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. On the basis of these works, in 1825, Henri Blainville introduced the concept of "type" into the system - the highest taxonomic unit.

The French biologist Georges Buffon (1707-1788) proposed the idea of species variability 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 detailed study historical development living nature. He first introduced the terms "invertebrates" and "vertebrates", worked hard on the systematization of invertebrates, among which he already distinguished 10 classes, and in 1815-1822. published great work"Natural History of Invertebrates". 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 traits are inherited, but the idea of natural selection was alien to him.

The Russian scientists K.F. Rulye (1814-1858) and K.M. Baer (1792-1876) opposed the idea of the immutability of species in the same period. Roulier called for the study of animals in their natural environment and in interaction with the environment. It can rightly be considered a forerunner of ecology. K. M. Baer is the author of outstanding research in the field of animal embryology, the creator of the theory of germ layers.

A significant influence on the development of zoology was formed in the late 30s of the XIX century. cell theory. Its creators are M. Schleiden (1804-1881) and T. Schwann (1810-1882). This theory convincingly showed 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) begins new period in the development of biology in general and zoology in particular. Darwin's book outlined evolutionary doctrine and defined the most important factor evolution - natural selection.

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

The evidence of evolution given by Charles Darwin aroused great interest in the comparative study various groups animals, in connection with which there are such sciences as evolutionary comparative anatomy and evolutionary comparative embryology. The leading role in the creation of the latter belongs to the Russian zoologists I.I. Mechnikov (1845-1916) and A.O. Kovalevsky (1840-1901). Conclusions of comparative embryology based on evolutionary teaching, served as strong evidence in favor of the unity of origin of all types of the animal kingdom. Already at the beginning of the XX century. the embryonic development of most types of animals was clarified 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 rapidly. Even in pre-Darwinian times, N. A. Severtsov (1827-1885) established a connection between the features of the fauna and the physical and geographical conditions in which this fauna develops. Thus, the basis of ecological zoogeography was laid.

Second half of the 19th century marked by the appearance new science- ecology. Russian zoologists formulated many of the main provisions and methodological principles of theoretical ecology. Moscow professor K.F. Rulye was one of the first to show the importance of studying animals in community with other organisms and actually formulated the concept of a population. AT late XIX- early XX century. extensive research has been carried out using environmental principles in the development of problems in the field of hunting and pest control (M.N. Bogdanov, L.P. Sabaneev, A.A. Silantiev, B.M. Zhitkov, etc.).

In the XX century. zoology developed extremely actively. Here we note briefly only the contribution of domestic scientists. In the XX century. the main studies of the fauna of the World Ocean were carried out. The foundation of our knowledge of zoogeography 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 Study of the Life of the Black Sea” (1913) by S.A. Zernov. Expeditionary ships "Vityaz" (Russia) and "Galateya" (Denmark) studied the depths of the World Ocean up to 11 thousand meters and made outstanding zoological discoveries. These works are continued by the research fleet Russian Academy Sciences. Remarkable discoveries include the discovery of a "living fossil" - a mollusk from the class of monoplacophores, the deciphering of the systematic position and the establishment of a new type of marine animals - the pogonophora (A.V. Ivanov) and many others.

The amount of entomological work performed by our scientists is very large. Insects are the largest group in the entire animal kingdom. Among them are many harmful species, carriers of human and domestic animal diseases, but there are also 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. Shtakelberg, A. S. Monchadsky, G. Ya. Bei-Bienko, S. I. Medvedev, O. L. Kryzhanovsky, G. S. Medvedev is great. Great importance had soil-ecological studies scientific school Academician M. S. Gilyarov.

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