What is in the bird collection?

Summary

Main research areas: • study of morphological diversity, functional morphology and evolution of fossil birds; • development phylogeny of birds with the inclusion of fossil taxa; • study of the dynamics of fossil fauna of birds and the origin of modern faunas; • study on the origin and evolution of birds bird traits in family groups of extinct reptiles. Research in paleontology and evolution of birds in the Paleontological Institute conducted since the mid-1960s and is largely associated with the name of a prominent ornithologist XX century - Evgeny Kurochkin (1940-2011). Efforts EN Kurochkin and his students, as well as many colleagues from other laboratories of the Institute, now in the Cabinet has accumulated a large collection of fossil birds from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia. There is also a collection of casts of fossil birds described from other areas. Especially valuable is the skeletal collections of modern birds collected largely through the efforts of EN Kurochkin and includes almost all of the family and a significant number of genera of birds in the world. Replenishment of skeletal collections continues at the present time. Cabinet staff interested in joint research with experts from other institutions in Russia and abroad and work together with leading experts on paleornitologii from Germany, US, UK and China.

Brief history

Founded 1962 by the Russian Academy of Sciences

Updates

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