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Національний науково-природничий музей НАН України (Київ, Україна) On the History of the National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine (to the 50 th Anniversary of Establishment).-Emelyanov, I. G., Chervonenko, O. V.-The National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine is the largest nature history museum in Ukraine, widely known because of its enormous fund collection (over 2 million storage units) and unique expositions. The formation of scientific nature history collections is closely linked with the country's history and it depended on the social system, organizational structure of scientific institutions and museums and also on the researchers' personalities. The present work contains a brief historical review of the collections and expositions of the four departments-museums, ways of their enrichment and contribution of well-known researchers into the Museum's development. Elucidated here are the significance of the NMNH NAS of Ukraine in preservation of scientific and cultural valuables, and its role in distribution and development of scientific knowledge in the natural sciences. The Museum's significant contribution as a biodiversity research center is emphasized as well.

Національний науково-природничий музей НАН України (Київ, Україна) On the History of the National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine (to the 50 th Anniversary of Establishment). -Emelyanov, I. G., Chervonenko, O. V. -The National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine is the largest nature history museum in Ukraine, widely known because of its enormous fund collection (over 2 million storage units) and unique expositions. The formation of scientific nature history collections is closely linked with the country's history and it depended on the social system, organizational structure of scientific institutions and museums and also on the researchers' personalities. The present work contains a brief historical review of the collections and expositions of the four departments-museums, ways of their enrichment and contribution of well-known researchers into the Museum's development. Elucidated here are the significance of the NMNH NAS of Ukraine in preservation of scientific and cultural valuables, and its role in distribution and development of scientific knowledge in the natural sciences. The Museum's significant contribution as a biodiversity research center is emphasized as well.

The life of Vadym Oleksandrovych Topachevsky and his contribution to the development of science is considered. V. O. Topachevsky was the most famous palaeomammalogist of Eastern Europe, long-term head of the palaeontological department of the now National Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, director of Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the Ukrainian SSR, founder and editor-in-chief of a number of important Ukrainian zoological publications, and academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Vadym Oleksandrovych was at the origins of systematic palaeontological expeditions to key sites of the Quaternary period, participated in the development of serial collections of small mammals and of the research techniques of faunal complexes based on the analysis of samples characterising the micromammal fauna of a particular section. Research by V. O. Topachevsky is devoted to such fundamental branches of zoology as taxonomy, phylogenetics, historical faunistics, evolutionary morphology, and zoogeography. The scientist paid much attention to biostratigraphy and palaeogeography. He solved complex issues of taxonomy and parataxonomy in relation to extinct and modern representatives of fauna, justified the establishing of a number of new to science taxa of extinct mammals. Among the outstanding achievements of Vadym Topachevsky of great importance is the creation of a comprehensive association scheme of development of communities, which explains the changes in the fauna of small mammals of the late Pliocene, Eopleistocene and Pleistocene of the Northern Black Sea Region, as well as the development and justification of the biozonal stratigraphic scheme of the late Miocene and Pliocene of the Eastern Paratethys. He is the author of 8 monographs and supervisor of 11 candidate and 2 doctoral dissertations. Vadym Oleksandrovych formed a powerful scientific department and prepared a worthy scientific change, the works of which are well known to specialists. His achievements were awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, the titles of Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, Honoured Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, and he won the I. I. Schmalhausen Prize of the NAS of Ukraine. The palaeontological exhibition of the National Museum of Natural History NAS of Ukraine was named after the scientist in 2005. The list of Vadym Topachevsky’s main scientific works is given as well.

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