The Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (PIN; russian: Палеонтологический институт РАН) in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

is among the world's largest paleontological institutes. An affiliate of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

, it includes collections from all over the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, as well as from other countries.

Museum

The Museum of Paleontology named after

Yuri Alexandrovich Orlov Yuri Alexandrovich Orlov (Yurij, Juriy, Jurii) (russian: Ю́рий Алекса́ндрович Орло́в; June 12, 1893 — October 2, 1966) — Russian Empire and Soviet zoologist, paleontologist. Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences ...

is run by the institute, and contains public exhibits representing almost every type of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

organism. Particularly well represented are

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s from

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

therapsid Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more ...

s from the

Perm Perm or PERM may refer to: Places *Perm, Russia, a city in Russia ** Permsky District, the district **Perm Krai, a federal subject of Russia since 2005 **Perm Oblast, a former federal subject of Russia 1938–2005 **Perm Governorate, an administra ...

region of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, and

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

fossils from

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the museum operated under a skeleton staff between 1941 and 1943 as the threat of the

Battle of Moscow The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between September 1941 and January ...

anticipated an invasion by the German army. Some specimens were packed up to prevent damage or destruction in air raids.

Notable staff

Evgeny Maleev Evgeny Aleksandrovich Maleev (, ; 25 February 1915 – 12 April 1966) was a Soviet and Russian paleontologist who did most of his research on reptiles and Asian fossils, such as the naming of the ankylosaur ''Talarurus'' and theropods ''Tarbo ...

* Ivan Efremov *

Alexey Bystrow Alexey Petrovich Bystrow, sometimes spelled Alexey Petrovich Bystrov and Aleksei Petrovich Bystrow, (russian: Алексе́й Петро́вич Быстро́в; February 1, 1899 – August 29, 1959) was a Soviet paleontologist, anatomist, ...

Tatiana Dobrolyubova Tatiana Dobrolyubova (russian: Татьяна Алексеевна Добролюбова; born 25 january 1891 – 24 july 1972) was a Russian geologist and paleontologist. Life and work Tatiana Alekseevna Dobrolyubova was born in 1891 in Nizheg ...

* Boris Sokolov *

Kirill Eskov Kirill Yuryevich Eskov (russian: Кири́лл Ю́рьевич Есько́в; born 16 September 1956) is a Russian writer, biologist and paleontologist. As an author he is known for '' The Gospel of Afranius'' in which he presents an atheistic ...

Alexandr Rasnitsyn Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn (Russian: Александр Павлович Расницын) is a Russian entomologist, expert in palaeoentomology, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (2001). His scientific interests are centered on ...

References

External links

Laboratory of Arthropods

at the

University of California Museum of Paleontology The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) is a paleontology museum located on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The museum is within the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB), designed by George W. Kelham and ...

website {{authority control Paleontological research institutes Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences Research institutes in the Soviet Union Scientific organizations established in 1930 Paleontology in Russia 1930 establishments in the Soviet Union