Official address:
Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
Zoological Museum
Universitetskaya nab., 1. / Universitetskaya embankment, 1
Bus : 10 ; Trolleybuses : 1, 7, 9, 10 ; "Birzhevaya Ploshchad" or "Universitet" stop
Saint-Petersburg, 199034
RUSSIA
Phone: (++7 812) 3280112.
Fax: (++7 812) 3282941
Internet Web-site
Curator:
Phone:
fax : 7(812) 328-29-41, 7(812) 114-04-44
The Laboratory of Mammalogy was organized as a separate entity in 1968. It now includes 25 people, including 16 researchers and nine technicians. There are three departments. The Department of Systematics and Phylogeny emphasizes the study of small mammals, including insectivores, bats, and rodents. The History of Faunas Department, emphasizing studies of paleontological material, was founded by N. K. Vereshchagin, and organized in 1978. The
Department of Functional Morphology emphasizes studies combining comparative anatomical, morphofunctional, and ecological approaches.
The collections of the Department of Systematics and Phylogeny include 80,000 skins, skulls, and complete skeletons of small mammals, including Pliocene and Holocene skeletal remains. The collection also includes a large number of whole mounts fixed in alcohol and formalin. These fixed mounts distinguish the collections of the Department from those of other museums in Russia. Baranova is the Curator of the collections. Collections are continuously enlarged with new material. Between 1981 and 1991, for example, 12,000 specimens were added. Through the efforts of various specialists, the Department's vivarium has been transformed into a "living collection" of rodents under study.
Scientific workers of the History of Faunas Department (Baryshnikov, Kuzmina, Tikhonov, Sablin, and Averianov) study the systematics and
zoogeography of Pleistocene and recent species of carnivores, ungulates, hares, and other mammalian groups. These Pleistocene and Holocene faunal
studies are focused on the northern and central zones of Eurasia. Collections of the Department include over 34,000 skulls, skeletons, and skeletal
fragments of recent and extinct mammals, primarily large forms of the Palearctic and other regions. Vast osteological holdings, including the remains of
domesticated animals, have been obtained from archeological excavations. Abramov is the Curator of the Department's collections.
Researchers in the Department of Functional Morphology (Aristov, Gambaryan, Fokin, Papusha, Zubtsova) conduct morphological analyses of
representatives of a number of mammalian orders. Employing innovative methods, they study locomotion, the functional morphology of locomotory
organs, and the structure and function of the masticatory apparatus.
Its collection of marmots consists of 763 specimens representing 12 identified species of Marmots of the World.
Data obtained by courtesy of Alexei ABRAMOV.
Marmot collection mainly consists of skulls, skeletons and skins.