What animal is depicted on the logo of the zoological museum. The southern warehouse of the exchange is a zoological museum. Zoological Museum of Moscow State University or where Bulgakovsky Vladimir Ipatievich Persikov was director. What is in the upper hall of the Zoological Museum

The zoological museum operating at Moscow State University is considered the oldest and largest in the capital. Here you can get acquainted with the huge variety of all modern animals living on our planet.

History of creation

Today, the zoological museum existing at Moscow State University is not only the largest in terms of the territory it occupies, but also the richest in terms of the volume of funds after a similar institution of a similar profile operating at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Truly unique specimens and rich scientific collections are collected here. The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street is one of the ten largest in the world.

In 1755, according to the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna, the Moscow Imperial University was founded. Today it is known as Moscow State University. The Zoological Museum was opened thirty-six years later. However, this does not prevent it from being considered one of the oldest Russian natural science centers.

Its history dates back to 1791. It was at this time that the Natural History Cabinet at Moscow State University was founded. A zoological museum was opened later on its base. Initially, the collection was replenished through private donations. The most significant was the collection from the Semiatichesky office and the P. Demidov museum. Very rare specimens of animals and plants, minerals, coins, etc. were collected here. Unfortunately, almost all museum exhibits of the Imperial University were destroyed during the fire of 1812.

Miraculously, only a few rare shells of mollusks and corals were preserved.

Branch

In the twenties, a zoological collection was separated from the partially restored office. It formed the basic basis of the museum of the same name. The latter was housed in Pashkov’s former house, which was reconstructed into an auditorium building for Moscow State University. The Zoological Museum was organized according to a systematic principle. This, according to the organizers, made it possible to illustrate as comprehensively as possible the entire natural evolution of animals.

Managers

From 1804 to 1832, the organization was headed by G. I. Fisher. He was an outstanding zoologist, a student of K. Linnaeus himself, who wrote the very first scientific works on the Russian fauna. In 1832, the first director of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University developed a project according to which he proposed organizing the institution entrusted to him according to the model of classical French, English and German analogues. However, his proposal was not accepted.

From 1837 to 1858 The zoological museum was headed by K. F. Roulier. Being the founder of the Russian ecological school, he focused on the domestic fauna and its study. Roulier attached great importance not only to the collection of serial materials on modern animals, but also fossils. Thanks to this concept, by the end of the fifties of the nineteenth century, the museum had accumulated more than sixty-five thousand exhibits.

Professor A.P. Bogdanov, who led it from 1863 to 1896, played an invaluable role in the development of this institution. It was they who divided the existing funds, separated exhibition, scientific and educational ones, and systematized accounting work. In 1866, the exhibition of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University was open for viewing, and by the end of the nineteenth century, according to statistics, up to eight thousand people visited it annually.

Moving to a new building

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new building was built especially for the museum, which in those years was headed by Professor A. Tikhomirov. The project was made by academician Bykhovsky. The new building was located on the corner of Dolgorukovsky (formerly Nikitsky) lane and Bolshaya Nikitskaya street. It has remained in its original form to this day, without any structural changes.

In 1911, a new systematic exhibition was opened to the public in the upper hall. In the twenties of the last century, the building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya also housed work premises for employees of the Zoology Research Institute, and since 1930 - some divisions of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. The Zoological Museum was also included in its structure.

War years

In July 1941, the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on Bolshaya Nikitskaya was closed for obvious reasons. Part of his scientific collections was evacuated to Ashgabat, and the rest were placed in the lower hall. Since March 1942, two halls on the second floor were reopened to the public, and after the end of the war, the lower level was also opened. The evacuated funds returned to their native land in 1943. The fifties of the last century were marked by the liberation of the museum building from the Faculty of Biology.

Halls of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University

Today, visitors are presented with more than ten thousand exhibits illustrating the enormous diversity of the animal world of our planet. In the spacious halls of the museum, the exhibitions are built systematically, according to evolutionary criteria and the international zoological classification. This allows visitors to easily navigate through the sections of the rich collection. Miniature life forms, for example single-celled organisms, are represented in the museum by dummies.

The hall on the first floor contains most of the exhibits - from insects and shells to higher beings. Presented in the form of original dioramas, the exhibitions give visitors the opportunity to see representatives of the animal world - reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, etc. in their natural habitat. One of the rooms displays deep-sea life forms, as well as ocean floor ecosystems.

Top floor

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov is a three-story building. Its halls are located on the first two. On the second floor there is the “Bone Hall”. It was given this name because it contains the skeletons of many animals belonging to various zoological orders. The upper hall today is completely dedicated to an exhibition telling about the huge variety of mammals and birds. Almost all the objects in this exhibition are stuffed animals, which were made by the best Russian taxidermists working at the end of the nineteenth and throughout the twentieth century. In both halls, exhibits are mainly placed in strict accordance with their systematic positions.

The symbol of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is a small animal, the muskrat. It is he who is depicted on the emblem. There is so much interesting in the museum that it is impossible to see everything in one day. One of the most recent exhibits is the hydrothermal vent community. Compared to other sections of the museum, it looks very unusual. The main object of this exhibition is not a specific systematic group, but different animals that together make up a common ecosystem that is “immersed” in the ocean. This is the only earthly system of its kind, which directly owes its existence on a planetary scale to processes occurring in the bowels of the earth.

Exhibits

A small number of stuffed animals are mounted along the central line of the upper hall. There are also thematic displays dedicated to birds - “Hunting with Birds of Falcon”, “Bird Bazaar”, “Birds of the Moscow Region”.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University carries out serious work, studying and systematizing knowledge about animals. Of the ten million exhibits available, only eighty percent are on display. Among them there are also unique representatives of the fauna, for example, the heaviest goliath beetle, etc.

The largest and most interesting exhibits of the museum, due to their substantial size, are presented in the lobby. One of them is a stuffed elephant, which lived in the Moscow Zoo in the post-war years. The second exhibit is the skeleton of a rare woolly mammoth - the last species to live on the planet. It has an interesting feature - a trace of a serious fracture of the skull bone. In addition to biological exhibits, the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University has a good collection of paintings by animal artists.

Additional Information

The institution carries out active scientific work. Many famous scientists, including foreign ones, collaborate with the museum. He has a good library, which contains more than two hundred thousand volumes of literature and research related to biological topics. The museum organizes not only excursions for visitors of different ages, but also interactive classes for children from four to fifteen years old. Lessons are conducted according to the type of active communication. The museum constantly hosts themed children's parties: “Bird Day”, “Russian Muskrat”, etc. By the way, the last animal is, as already mentioned, a symbol of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University.

On weekends there is a scientific terrarium here. The museum contains numerous living reptiles. Visitors are allowed to feed the chameleons, hold an agama, and the terrarium staff will talk about the habits of their charges in a fascinating manner. The cost of a ticket to visit the museum for adults is two hundred, and schoolchildren, students and pensioners need to pay fifty rubles.

Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov is the oldest and largest university museum in Russia. Founded in 1791 as the Cabinet of Natural History at the Moscow Imperial University. By the end of the 19th century, the number of exhibits in its collections was so large that to accommodate them, according to the design of academician of architecture K.M. Bykovsky, a special building was built on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, striking with its beauty even the most sophisticated viewer.

Museum visitors can expect an extensive exhibition of approximately 10,000 exhibits, illustrating the diversity of the living world of the planet: representatives of all groups of animals, from single-celled organisms to birds and mammals. Animals are arranged in a systematic order, type by type, order by order, in accordance with ideas about the degree of their relationship and the course of evolution. The traditional order of arranging exhibits in accordance with the natural system has been preserved, which makes it possible to easily navigate in any section of the collection.

Guests are greeted by the two largest exhibits, located in the museum lobby. Near the stairs leading to the halls of the second floor, there is a skeleton of a woolly mammoth, one of the few exhibits of the Zoological Museum, which cannot formally be classified as modern fauna. This skeleton is authentic, one of the most complete mammoth skeletons stored in natural science museums in Russia. To the right of the lobby on the way to the Lower Hall of the museum is a stuffed Indian elephant Molly, a favorite of visitors to the Moscow Zoo in the last century.

The main variety of animals, from single-celled animals to reptiles, is concentrated in the Lower Hall, on the first floor of the museum. There are exhibitions of insects, lower chordates, fish, amphibians and reptiles, invertebrates, as well as display cases with the newest part of the permanent museum exhibition - the “Hydrothermal Vents Communities” exhibition.

Above it is the Upper Hall, which is entirely dedicated to an exhibition telling about the diversity of birds and mammals. Most of the exhibits are arranged in accordance with their systematic position, but there are also separate biogroups where animals and birds are presented in their natural habitat.

Also on the second floor is the Hall of Comparative Anatomy (the so-called Bone Hall), the exhibition of which is devoted to issues of the evolutionary morphology of vertebrates, i.e. changes in their structure during historical development.

In the corridor of the second floor there is an exhibition “The Zoological Museum in the History of Moscow University: Collections and People”, dedicated to the history of the museum from its founding in 1791 to the present day.

The foyer and halls of the museum are decorated with more than a hundred paintings and panels by famous animal artists, whose artistic works complement and illustrate groups of natural objects in their natural habitat.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow University has the status of a scientific and educational institution. Intensive scientific work is carried out there, leading experts study various aspects of the diversity of modern animals. Experienced guides conduct excursions and interactive activities designed for visitors of all ages. The museum has a lecture hall, where important biological information is prepared and presented in a popular form for our young guests and their parents, as well as unique popular science lectures designed for the widest audience. At the museum there is a circle of young naturalists in which the children receive not only theoretical knowledge in zoology, but also regularly go on field practice. Also on weekends, the Scientific Terrarium is open with an extensive collection of live reptiles, where you can hold a live agama in your hands or feed a chameleon, and terrarium lecturers talk in detail about the animals presented.

Address: st. Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 6

Operating mode:

The museum is open to the public from 10.00 to 18.00 (the ticket office is open until 17:00)

Day off - Monday

Sanitary day is the last Tuesday of every month

Ticket prices:

for schoolchildren, students and pensioners - 50 rubles.

for adults - 200 rub.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is one of the largest natural science repositories not only in our country, but throughout the world. An excellent place to get acquainted with living creatures inhabiting planet Earth, it is used for educational and research purposes. The museum is compact and cozy and organizes interesting interactive excursions for different age categories of visitors.

The specially built building from the beginning of the last century, in which the exhibition is located, was designed by academician of architecture Bykovsky.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University separated from the mineralogical collection, formed back in 1759. The zoological exhibits there were supplemented by the donated collection of one of the descendants of Nikita Demidov, a famous breeder and metallurgist. The fire of 1812 destroyed much, but enthusiasts resumed and increased the exhibition before the museum moved to a new building. The spacious lobby is decorated with paintings by the famous animal painter Vatagin, which depict scenes of animal life against the backdrop of natural landscapes.

Next to the lobby there is a very large exhibit - a stuffed elephant, or rather a female elephant. Molly was a long-liver of the Moscow Zoo and the first elephant to give birth while kept in captivity. The stuffed animal was made very skillfully, but the long duration of the display forced museum staff to warn visitors against touching the exhibit.

An information stand precedes the exhibition to make it easier for visitors to navigate the layout of individual sections. The exhibits are grouped in order of increasing complexity of the structure of organisms, from lower to higher beings. The lower floor houses invertebrates, insects and fish, as well as reptiles and amphibians.

The top one represents a variety of birds and is crowned by a group of mammals. There is also a separate anatomical (Bone) hall, where skeletons of various vertebrates are displayed.

Lower hall of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University

The first floor of the museum, in addition to numerous exhibits, is also architecturally interesting. Columns and arched partitions form a vaulted ceiling, all together creating a special museum atmosphere. The stands and display cases are glazed, which does not impair visibility and at the same time ensures the safety of the exhibits, and also protects visitors from the smell of preservatives.

In addition to skeletons and stuffed animals, some of the exhibits are presented in preserved form. Organisms preserved in alcohol retain their original appearance and can be stored indefinitely. It is impossible to imagine, in particular, some reptiles in any other way. A variety of snakes are widely represented in the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University and arouse the interest of visitors. Unlike amphibians (amphibians), reptiles live only on land and are able to obtain oxygen only from atmospheric air. The largest variety of snakes lives in tropical zones, but they are found even in the Arctic Circle. They are only absent in Antarctica.

Other types of reptiles are also represented in the museum - lizards, crocodiles, monitor lizards and turtles. Crustaceans are numerous, the number of varieties of which on Earth is very large. Crayfish are microscopic creatures - daphnia and cyclops, used to feed aquarium fish (fish in natural bodies of water also readily eat them). Shrimp and lobsters, lobsters and crabs are also among the crustaceans that are even more numerous than insects on the planet. Moreover, in terms of the number of species, insects surpass not only all arthropods, but also all other biological groups.

Turtles stand apart among reptiles - peculiar creatures with a strong bony shell. The protection is very reliable and time-tested, as evidenced by the preservation of the species unchanged for approximately 150 million years. There are land and sea turtles, as well as those living in inland waters. The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University displays a large collection of these peculiar animals.

The same section of the exhibition presents a variety of fish that live in the seas and oceans, as well as in the rivers and lakes of the planet. The pearl of the collection is a fossil coelacanth, long considered extinct. This lobe-finned fish was one of the sensations of the last century when it was caught in the Comoros area. It is considered the most ancient in origin of living beings now inhabiting the Earth.

There are more than a million species of insects on the planet, which is a record among all groups of living beings. Many species are presented on the museum stands in the corresponding section of the exhibition. Insects pollinate many types of plants, some produce products useful to humans (examples are bees and silkworms). There are bugs that cause inconvenience to people, such as bedbugs, fleas and cockroaches; some carry a number of diseases. Dragonflies and beetles, mosquitoes, ants and grasshoppers are an incomplete list of insects.

The most numerous insects are butterflies; the number of their species exceeds 140 thousand. A characteristic feature of butterflies is the exceptional variety of patterns and colors of their wings, which has made them a popular collectible. The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University allows you to admire the beauty of these creatures at its stands.

The State Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on Bolshaya Nikitskaya is the largest exhibition center in the capital.

It gives you the opportunity to appreciate how diverse the animal world is - even on the bas-reliefs on the façade there are images of animals, and the museum’s logo is a muskrat animal. This is an amazing building, full of the most amazing specimens of the fauna of our planet. I can’t even describe what it’s like to be in such a place... It’s better to see with your own eyes.

The building is located in the city center. Official information can be found on the museum website.

In contact with

History of origin

It was founded in 1791. At first, at the capital’s university there was a small office where natural history was studied. In fact, a small exhibition was created here a third of a century later, and it was called the “mineralogy cabinet.”

But when biological specimens were presented among the exhibition specimens, they were used to create a natural history cabinet. The head of the department was Ivan Andreevich Sibirsky.

It is important to know: P.G. made a great contribution to the formation of exhibits. Demidov, who at the beginning of the 19th century donated magnificent exhibits and a library to the center.

The first inventory of the new property dates back to 1806-1807. But a fire in 1812 caused great damage to the complex, its property was almost destroyed.

G.I. Fisher began active restoration; he attracted a large number of collectors and naturalists, and after some time the fund consisted of six thousand exhibits. And six years later, the center’s property doubled.

By the beginning of the 30s. In the 19th century, the collection volume consisted of 25 thousand items. The building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street was built at the beginning of the 20th century. The project for it was developed by K.M. Bykovsky. And by the 30s. last century, the institution was transferred to the Biological Faculty of Moscow State University.

Exhibitions

The exhibition in this case represents almost ten thousand copies. It begins with single-celled organisms, shown through artificial modeling, and ends with large reptiles and bison.

The main exhibition provides an opportunity to get acquainted with animals from all over the world and is organized according to class method (starting from the protozoa and gradually moving to the order of vertebrates).

The lower hall, located on the 1st floor, displays a wide variety of animals. Visitors can see here both a single-celled organism and a large reptile.

The number of exhibits is so huge that you could spend several days exploring. The 2nd floor is occupied by the upper hall, which is completely “populated” by birds and mammals. There is also a Bone Hall here. The exhibition in this case provides an overview of the animals from the inside. Visitors here can see:

• mammoth skeleton;
• fake rhinoceros;
• fake elephant;
• fake hippopotamus;
• stuffed crocodile and boa constrictor.

For visitors who want to learn more about animals, the staff of the establishment organizes lectures. They are carried out taking into account children's age characteristics.

On weekends, fascinating lectures for children and parents are given by the Biolektorium. The lobby and exhibition spaces display paintings by famous animal painters. There are works here:

• V.A. Vatagina;
• N.N. Kondakova and others.

What interesting things you should know about the zoo museum:

• The symbol of the museum is the Russian muskrat, listed in the Red Book of Russia. She is depicted on the emblem;
• The entomology department has a collection of 4 million insect specimens;

• In addition to lectures, the institution’s staff conduct interactive classes for children of different age groups and organize children’s birthday parties;
• Every Saturday and Sunday “Biolectory” holds lectures for parents with children aged five years and older. The features and secrets of biology are presented here in an easy, relaxed manner;
• The museum has a “Scientific Terrarium” that introduces visitors to the peculiarities of the life of reptiles. The opening hours of the “Scientific Terrarium” are from 11.00 to 17.00 on weekends. You will need a separate ticket to visit it. The price of such a ticket includes not only an exciting narrative, but also the opportunity to hold rare animals in your hands;

Interesting fact: at the end of the last century, the institution was given the name Research Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University. After numerous changes of status, this name is still valid.

• A youth club was organized for high school and college students; it is based on the original development of researcher E. Dunaev.

Address

The exhibition complex is located at the address: Moscow, Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, building 6. It is not difficult to find. It is located directly in the center of the capital.

Is it difficult to reach by public transport? Not at all - having taken the metro to the Library named after. Lenin" or "Okhotny Ryad", you need to head to house No. 6 on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street (this is the former Herzen Street). The location you are looking for is located nearby and can be reached in less than ten minutes.

Operating mode

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., it is open to visitors. Mondays only - days off. The last Tuesday of the month is also non-working.

Ticket prices

For adult visitors, the ticket price is 200 rubles. For school-age children, students and pensioners there is a discounted price of 50 rubles.

Children under seven years of age have the opportunity to visit exhibitions without tickets. This is also allowed for persons belonging to preferential categories.

If you come with the whole family or a group, you can book an excursion. For a group of 7 people it will cost 1,500 rubles.

If you arrive without a group, but want to ask for a guide, then just purchase a ticket for 250 rubles. for an adult and 100 rub. for a child and join any large excursion group.

Visitor reviews

The fact that this place is truly very interesting is evidenced by numerous positive reviews from visitors. Here are some of them:

• “I’ve lived in Moscow for almost 50 years, but this was my first time visiting the zoo museum. And I was pleasantly surprised. Everything turned out to be very educational. I recommend visiting, it won’t be a waste of time” Alexander, 48 years old, Moscow;
• “I went to the exhibition on the advice of friends, and did not regret it at all. The exposition turned out to be simply unique. Allowed to take free photos” Anastasia, 45 years old, Reutov;

• “I brought my seven-year-old daughter to the Zoological Institute. To make the excursion more interesting, we hired a guide. The child received a lot of impressions, especially impressed by the exhibition of animal skeletons” Lydia, 36 years old, Balashikha;
• “We came to get acquainted with zoology with our three children (9, 7 and 5 years old), we left the car in the parking lot. The establishment pleased me with its excellent exhibits and cleanliness. The whole family had great fun, the children were delighted with the starfish, the she-wolf with her cubs, the squirrel and the big sea turtle.” Evgeniy and Svetlana, Yegoryevsk, Moscow region;
• “The zoo museum has an exhibition of sea mollusks, and my son is very interested in them. We can say that we came for this exhibition. Immediately on the spot we became interested in other exhibits and had a pleasant time. All the information turned out to be informative and interesting. The staff here is very well-mannered and polite. It turns out that on Sundays they hold special classes for schoolchildren, you should definitely attend these lectures.” Angelina, 36 years old, Moscow.

What excursions are held at the Zoological Museum, see the following video.

History of the museum.

Research Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov traces its ancestry to the Cabinet of Natural History, founded at the Moscow Imperial University in 1791. Initially, the Cabinet was replenished mainly through private donations: among the most significant are the collection of the Semiatic Cabinet of Natural History and the Museum of P.G. Demidova.

Almost all of the university's museum collections were lost in the Moscow fire of 1812; Only a small part of the corals and mollusk shells has survived. In the 20s, a zoological collection was separated from the restored Cabinet, which formed the basis of the museum of the same name, located in the new university classroom building (formerly Pashkov’s house). The principle of organization was systematic, intended to illustrate the natural system of animals. In 1822, the first inventory of the museum's collections was published, which included more than 1 thousand specimens of vertebrates and about 20 thousand specimens of invertebrate animals.

From 1804 to 1832 The museum was headed by the outstanding zoologist G.I. Fischer is a student of K. Linnaeus, the author of the first scientific works on the fauna of Russia. In 1832, he developed a project for organizing the Russian Museum of Natural History in Moscow, modeled on the classical national museums of France, England and Germany. However, this project was not accepted (there is still no museum of this type in Russia).

In 1837-1858 the museum was headed by K.F. Roulier is the founder of the Russian school of ecologists. He paid his main attention to the study of domestic fauna and attached great importance to the collection of serial materials, not only on modern, but also on fossil animals. Thanks to following this concept, by the end of the 50s. the museum has already accumulated more than 65 thousand copies.

Prof. played a major role in the development of the Zoological Museum. A.P. Bogdanov, who led it from 1863 to 1896. During this period, the funds were divided into exhibition, educational and scientific, and systematic accounting work with them began. In 1866, the museum was opened as a public museum; by the end of the century, its exhibition was visited by up to 8,000 people a year.

In 1898-1901, especially for the Zoological Museum, which was headed by prof. A.A. Tikhomirov, according to the project of academician Bykhovsky, a building was erected on the corner of Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. and Dolgorukovsky (Nikitsky) lane, preserved without structural changes to this day. In 1911, a new systematic exhibition was opened to the public in the Upper Hall.

In the 20s, the building housed the working premises of the Research Institute of Zoology, Plavmornin, and from 1930 - services and divisions of the newly organized Biological Faculty of Moscow University, into the structure of which the museum itself was introduced. During these years (from 1904 to 1930) the museum was headed by prof. G.A.Kozhevnikov. Under him, zoological scientists were formed within the walls of the museum, whose works subsequently received worldwide recognition: specialists in invertebrate animals, Acad. L.A.Zenkevich, prof. Borutsky; entomologists prof. B.B.Roddendorf, prof. E.S. Smirnov; ichthyologist academician L.S. Berg; ornithologists prof. G.P.Dementyev, prof. N.A. Bobrinskaya, prof. N.A.Gladkov; theriologists prof. S.I.Ognev, prof. V.G. Geptner. In 1931, the Zoological Museum was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Museum Department of the People's Commissariat for Education (until 1939) and received the name "Central State Zoological Museum". The volume of scientific funds in the early 40s. reached 1.2 million copies.

In July 1941, all museum halls were closed. Part of the scientific collections was evacuated to Ashgabat, the rest were placed in the Lower Hall. In March 1942, both halls on the second floor were opened to the public, and in 1945, the lower floor was also opened. The evacuated funds were returned in 1943. In the 50s. The main event was the release of the museum building from the services of the Biological Faculty in connection with its move to the new building of Moscow State University on the Lenin Hills, which made it possible to significantly improve the placement of scientific collections.

In the 70-80s. (director O.L. Rossolimo) the museum has undergone a complete reconstruction. By freeing the “wings” of the building occupied by residential premises, the storage area was increased and the exhibition halls were unloaded.

The scientific part of the museum.

The scientific part of the museum currently includes 7 sectors: zoology of invertebrate animals, entomology, ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology, theriology, evolutionary morphology. The number of scientific staff is 26 people. Among them are the world's leading specialists in the taxonomy of individual taxa of shellless and testate mollusks, crustaceans, mites, Coleoptera and Diptera insects, gobiids, and desert rodents. The main direction of research is the analysis of the structure of taxonomic diversity, including systematics, phylogenetics, and faunistics. Developments in the field of theoretical taxonomy are underway. Every year the works of the museum are published under the general title “Research on Fauna” (34 volumes were published), scientific monographs are published (in recent years at least 20, including the fundamental summary “Mammals of Eurasia”), collection catalogs (primarily standard ones, also the Demidov collection mollusks), methodological manuals for their storage. With the support of the museum, 4 scientific journals in the field of zoology are published.

Museum funds.

In terms of the volume of funds, the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is among the first ten largest museums in the world in this profile, and ranks second in Russia (after the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg). Its scientific collections currently include more than 4.5 million storage units. The annual increase in scientific collections is about 25-30 thousand units. xp, and a significant contribution is made by branch institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences of Problems of Evolution and Ecology, Oceanology, Geography, etc. The most extensive collections are entomological (about 3 million, of which over 1 million are beetles); The collections of mammals (200 thousand) and birds (140 thousand) are very significant. Of the regions, the Palearctic is most fully represented.

Of particular scientific importance is the collection of type specimens (about 7 thousand items), documenting the discovery of animal taxa new to science - species and subspecies, of which more than 5 thousand have been described based on the museum’s collections throughout its history.

Of great historical value are: a collection of mollusk shells that belonged to P.G. Demidov, with whom the Cabinet of Natural History began; G. Fischer's collection of insects, which served as the basis for his famous “Entomography”; a few exhibits of birds and mammals, which in the times of G. Fischer and C. Roulier were demonstrated in classes with students and public lectures (for example, the skull of a mountain gorilla, which has inventory No. 1); fees N.A. Severtsov and A.P. Fedchenko of the second half of the last century, who organized the first systematic studies of the mountainous territories of Central Asia.

Among the more recent acquisitions, the world-famous collections of beetles by V.I. are of great importance for systematics research. Mochulsky and butterflies A.V. Tsvetaeva; a collection of terrestrial and marine invertebrates collected by Semper at the end of the last century in the Philippines and until recently considered lost; collections of mammals and birds from the Peruvian Amazon, Vietnam, Mongolia; oological collection of Palaearctic birds.

Library.

The museum's scientific library contains about 200 thousand items. mainly specialized publications on zoology. Among the particularly valuable are lifetime editions of the late 18th - early 19th centuries by C. Linnaeus, J.-B. Lamarck, G. Fischer. The attraction of the library is books and prints from the personal collections of zoologists S.I. Ogneva, N.I. Plavilshchikova, G.P. Dementieva and others.

Exposition.

The modern exhibition includes about 7.5 thousand exhibits. The general principle of its construction remains the same: two halls are dedicated to the systematic part, one to the evolutionary-morphological part. The Lower Hall houses invertebrates, fish, amphibians and reptiles. In the Upper Hall there are birds and mammals. The key concept of the systematic exhibition is to demonstrate the taxonomic diversity of the world's fauna. The purpose of the evolutionary exhibition is to demonstrate the operation of the basic laws and rules of macro-evolutionary transformations of morphological structures.

The exhibition displays mainly representatives of mass species. Along with this, there are also unique objects: for example, a complete skeleton of a Steller's cow, a stuffed passenger pigeon (both of these species were exterminated by humans 200 years ago). Among the exhibits that especially attract visitors are two stuffed giant pandas - one of the rarest animals, a collection of very bright and large tropical butterflies and beetles; finally, openwork skeletons of vertebrate animals made about 100 years ago.

The exhibition is based on natural objects: stuffed animals and skeletons of terrestrial vertebrates, complete specimens of fish, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates fixed in alcohol, dried and straightened insects. Elements of the landscape principle are also used: some objects are mounted on imitations of a natural substrate. Natural objects are accompanied by diagrams and texts containing information about the taxonomic position, distribution, features of biology and morphology, and the principles of operation of individual morphological structures.

Many stuffed animals and preparations are decades old. They were made by such outstanding taxidermists as F. Lorenz, and later - V. Fedulov, N. Nazmov, V. Radin.

The museum has an art fund that includes more than 400 drawings and paintings by outstanding Russian animal artists: V.A. Vatagina, A.N. Komarova, N.N. Kondakova, G.E. Nikolsky and others. Some of the paintings are on permanent display.

Working with visitors. Museum for children.

Scientific and educational work on the basis of the exposition is carried out by the excursion and exposition department with 10 employees. Every year, the museum's exposition is visited by 190-200 thousand people, about 1,700 excursions are organized on 15-18 topics.

The educational center "Planetarium" operates on the basis of the lecture hall. Lectures are developed and given by scientific experts in relevant fields of knowledge. Their topics cover biology, history, art, and architecture.

The museum runs a zoological club for high school students. Classes are held on the basis of the museum's stock collections, lectures on the evolution and biology of animals, and field trips.

The museum is open daily except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Address: 103009 Moscow K-9, st. Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 6.
Contact phone: 203-89-23.