Sector of Mammalogy

The Sector of Mammalogy is a separate unit of the Zoological Museum. Currently, its staff includes four permanent positions for completing, storing, and studying mammal collections. In addition, voluntaries take part in the work of the Sector, mainly students and postgraduates of Moscow State University and the Russian Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. Besides, N.N. Spasskaya, the Secretary for Research of the Zoological Museum, curates the collection of ungulates. The head of the Sector is S.V. Kruskop.

The main areas of research are taxonomy (mainly phylogeny-based) of particular groups of mammals (rodents, bats, insectivores, carnivores), distribution, ecomorphology, morphometrics. The issues of theory and methodology of phylogenetics and taxonomy, the history of systematics and zoological nomenclature are also being developed.

The Sector stores both dry and wet materials on modern mammals and provides an opportunity for their research. The Palearctic species are most completely represented.

Regarding the volume and composition, collection of mammals of the Zoological Museum is the largest in Russia, it is among the top ten of such collections in the world. The main form of storage is dry skulls and skins (about 165,000 specimens), and wet collection counts 40,000 specimens. Postcranial skeletons of mammals (about 8,000 specimens) are stored in the rooms of the Sector of Evolutionary Morphology. There is also a small collection of traces of vital activity of mammals (created in 2001).

Forms of cataloguing include: traditional Acquisition and Inventory Books, card files, and electronic database created in 1998. The entire type collection is recorded in it, and all newly received materials are also recorded. The Inventory Book was previously filled manually with ink, and its individual sheets are now printed from the electronic database.

About 208,000 mammal specimens are stored in the Sector. About 640 type specimens (nomenclatural types and paratypes) are stored, representing more than 370 taxa. The electronic databases currently contain more than 44750 records of mammal specimens.

The main rooms of the Sector are located on the second floor of the Museum building on both sides of the main staircase. In room No. 30, there are staff rooms and workplaces for specialists; in rooms No. 32-40, there are repositories of collection materials. In addition, on the third floor, a part of room No. 31 is occupied by the collection of wet rodent preparations. Skeletal material, as already mentioned, is stored in the Sector of Evolutionary Morphology.