Photo: Svetlana PAVLOVA / from the archive of NEFU Newsroom

The International Consortium PaleoMIR is created within the frameworks of strategic academic units on the basis of North-Eastern Federal University. Scientists of the Mammoth Museum and the Museum of Archaeology, Ethnography and Higher Education, leading biologists, chemists, cultural experts and linguists of the Federal University joined together to establish the world center for comprehensive study of the ice age mammals in Eastern Siberia and their habitats, according to Semyon Grigoryev, a senior researcher at the Laboratory "NEFU Mammoth Museum".

"Mammal paleontology from the Quaternary period is one of the priority research areas of the Federal University. There will be the best experts and scientific equipment of the university in different areas in PaleoMIR strategic academic initiative", said Semyon Grigoriev, a senior researcher at the laboratory of the Mammoth Museum of NEFU Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, head of the center. Professor Matthijs van Kolfschoten from the Faculty of Archeology of the University of Leiden (Netherlands) will be co-head.

Morphological, evolutionary, taxonomical, paleobiological studies of fossil mammals of the Pleistocene and Holocene, biotechnological analysis of paleontological objects from the permafrost, recreation of ancient stages of human exploration of Northeast Asia will be carried out in the world center. The development of paleontological tourism will be one of the important areas.

The work in different areas of research activity and important engineering projects is already carried out, according to the head of the Mammoth Museum. "Establishment of PaleoMIR consortium and comprehensive study of the mammoth fauna with the use of the latest technologies and equipment will raise paleontological science to a new level, making Maksim Ammosov university the world center for comprehensive study of the ice age mammals in Eastern Siberia and their habitats", concluded the researcher.

Students and scientists of the Federal University, researchers of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, University Clinic, NEFU Museum of Archaeology, Ethnography and Higher Education will be involved in research at PaleoMIR Center. "In the future, it will allow us to open the Master’s programs "Anthropology and Ethnology", "Cell biology, Cytology, Histology and Immunology”, the international programs "Paleozoology" with the University of Michigan, including the postgraduate studies in Human Anatomy", said Semyon Grigoriev.