11 Facts About Ilya Darevsky

Ilya Sergeyevich Darevsky was a Soviet Russian zoologist-herpetologist and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Ilya Darevsky was interested in amphibians and reptiles since his childhood, when he met Sergey A Chernov, a herpetologist from Leningrad.

In 1962, Ilya Darevsky became Junior Researcher at the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences; in 1967, he defended his Doktor of sciences thesis "The Rock Lizards of the Caucasus"; and in 1976, he became the Head of Laboratory of Ornithology and Herpetology, which he led for the next twenty years.

Ilya Darevsky was the first to discover parthenogenesis and polyploidy in higher vertebrates and showed their importance for speciation.

Ilya Darevsky authored more than three hundred scientific papers and several monographs about the systematics, ecology, paleontology, morphology, and conservation of amphibians and reptiles.

Ilya Darevsky has been part of many zoological expeditions to the Caucasus, Central Asia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Ilya Darevsky trained many scientists from the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mongolia, and Vietnam, and for many years he lectured on herpetology at Leningrad State University.

Ilya Darevsky was President of Russian Herpetological Society, honorary member of the Societas Europaea Herpetologia and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and a member of many Russian and foreign scientific societies.

The Caucasian rock lizards, that Ilya Darevsky studied for his entire life, were named in his honor as a genus Darevskia, as well as the viper Vipera darevskii, and the lizard Eutropis darevskii.

Ilya Darevsky was always friendly and eager in meeting young colleagues.

Ilya Darevsky became seriously ill over the last few years and was unable to visit the Zoological Institute.