Sergey Alexandrovich Chernov (1903–1964): biography of herpetologist

N.B. Ananjeva and I.V. Doronin

Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 2020, 324(1): 7–40 · https://doi.org/10.31610/trudyzin/2020.324.1.7

Abstract

The scientific biography of the outstanding herpetologist and specialist in zoogeography Sergei Alexandrovich Chernov (1903–1964) was reconstructed on the base the study of archival materials and literature sources. The text is divided into four parts, reflecting the main stages of his biography: 1903–1930 – Kharkiv, the beginning of the scientific career; 1930–1941 – relocation to Leningrad, Tajik-Pamir expedition; 1941–1945 – Great Patriotic War and evacuation; 1945–1964 – period after the Great Patriotic War. In the paper, we emphasize the line of teacher–student continuity begun by A.M. Nikolsky and S.A. Chernov in the herpetology department of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The appendix contains a list of his publications (52 titles), taxa, described by him (11) and named in his honor (6). In majority of his publications, Chernov was the sole author; most of them were published in Russian; only one paper was written in a foreign (German) language. One of the main achievements of Chernov should be recognized a publication of the Guide of amphibians and reptiles of the USSR together with P.V. Terentyev. He made the greatest contribution to the study of the systematics of lizards and snakes, composition, zoogeography, and the history of the formation of the herpetofauna of Central Asia. According to his studies, the fauna of Central and Central Asia are subsidiaries of the once united region, what contradicted the views of his teacher Nikolsky, who developed the concept of M.A. Menzbir about the young postglacial origin of the Aral-Caspian deserts and the ancient, Eocene origin of the deserts of Central Asia.

Key words

amphibians, biography, herpetology, zoology, history of science, reptiles, Chernov Sergey Alexandrovich

Submitted October 7, 2019 · Accepted January 29, 2020 · Published March 24, 2020

References

Adler K. (ed.). 1989. Contributions to the History of Herpetology. Issued to commemorate the I World Congress of Herpetology, Canterbury. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Oxford, Ohio, 202 p. (Contributions to Herpetology, 5).

Ananjeva N.B. 2012. Research on Asian Agamid Lizards: Contribution of Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Russian Journal of Herpetology, 19(2): 85–100.

Ananjeva N.B. and Doronin I.V. 2012. Not forgotten the name of the Russian herpetology. By the 125th anniversary of S.F. Tsarevsky. Priroda, (6): 86–92. [In Russian].

Ananjeva N.B. and Doronin I.V. 2015. Ilya Sergeevich Darevsky: portrait of herpetologist. Photoalbum. ZIN RAS, St. Petersburg, 103 p. [In Russian].

Ananjeva N.B., Munkhbayar Kh., Orlov N.L., Orlova V.F., Semenov D.V. and Terbish Kh. 1997. Amphibians and Reptiles of Mongolia. Reptiles. KMK, Moscow, 417 p. [In Russian].

Ananjeva N.B. and Orlov N.L. 2011. Modern ideas on biodiversity of Tropical Asia: contribution of Russian herpetologists. In: N.B. Ananjeva (ed.). The Problems of Herpetology. Proceedings of the 4th Meetingof the Nikolsky Herpetological Society 12–17 October 2009 Kazan. Saint-Petersburg: 7–16. [In Russian]

Ananjeva N.B. and Peters G. 1981. On the validity of Agama pawlowskii, Cernov et Dubinin, 1946. Proceedings of the Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 101: 21–22. [In Russian].

Balushkin A.V. 2003. The sources of the St. Petersburg ichthyological school. Letters of L.S. Berg to A.N. Svetovidov. ZIN RAS, St. Petersburg, 96 p. (Proceedings of the Zoological Institute, 301). [In Russian].

Barabanov A.V. and Ananjeva N.B. 2007. Catalogue of the available scientific species-group names for lizards of the genus Phrynocephalus Kaup, 1825 (Reptilia, Sauria, Agamidae). Zootaxa, 1399: 1–56. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1399.1.1

Belyakov S.S. 2013. Gumilyov son of Gumilyov. AST, Moscow, 797 p. [In Russian].

Bondar L.D., Tokarev N.V. and Shishkina K.G. (compilers) 2015. Scientific and organizational relations of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR: 1929–1941: collection of reports. Belarusian Science, Minsk, 247 p. [In Russian].

Borkin L.J. 2003a. Brief outline of the development of herpetology in Russia. In: O.L. Rossolimo and E.A. Dunaev (eds). Moscow Herpetologists: collection. KMK, Moscow: 7–33. [In Russian].

Borkin L.J. 2003b. Moscow years of P.V. Terentyev. In: O.L. Rossolimo and E.A. Dunaev (eds). Moscow Herpetologists: collection. KMK, Moscow: 385–422. [In Russian].

Borkin L.J. 2013. Lev Isaakovich Khosatzky (1913–1992) as a zoologist-herpetologist and paleontologist. Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 317(4): 356–371. [In Russian].

Darevsky I.S. 1997. History of failed evolutionary theory. Priroda, (8): 121–128. [In Russian].

Darevsky I.S. 2014. My biography (herpetology and life). Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 318(4): 292–325. [In Russian].

Doronin I.V. 2015. The Unknown Life story of the Eminent Herpetologist. Studies in the History of Biology, 7(1): 73–78. [In Russian].

Doronin I.V. and Barabanov A.V. 2014. Ilya Sergeevich Darevsky (1924–2009): bibliography (1938–2014). Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 318(4): 339–370. [In Russian].

Ineich I. and Doronin I.V. 2019. Additional Data on the Herpetological Collection of Louis Amédée Lantz (1886–1953): Designation of a Lectotype for Eremias zarudnyi Lantz, 1928. Russian Journal of Herpetology, 26(6) 309–318. https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2019-26-6-309-318

Ischenko V.G. 2003. Teacher. In: O.L. Rossolimo and E.A. Dunaev (ed.). Moscow Herpetologists: collection. KMK, Moscow: 422–435. [In Russian].

Ivanov A.I. 1940. Birds of Tajikistan. Publisher Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow–Leningrad, 300 p. (Proceedings of the Tajik base of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Zoology and parasitology, X). [In Russian].

Khosatzky L.I. 1951. [Book review] P.V. Terentyev and S.A. Chernov. Opredelitel’ presmykayushchikhsya i zemnovodnykh. Tret’ye dopolnennoye izdaniye. Izd. Sovetskaya Nauka, Moscow, 1949, 339 s. Priroda, (9): 91–93. [In Russian].

Kozyrin I.P. and Nazartsev B.I. 2014. Central Asian expedition of Academician E.N. Pavlovsky in photographs and documents of the Military Medical Museum. Photograph. Image. Document. 5(5): 19–29. [In Russian].

Leviton A.E. 1964. Sergius Alexandrovich Chernov (1903–1964). Copeia, (2): 466. https://doi.org/10.2307/1440829

Luknitsky P.[N.] 1955. Travel to the Pamirs. Publishing House of the Komsomol Central Committee «Young Guard», Moscow, 502 p. [In Russian].

Menzbier M.A. 1914. Zoological areas of Turkestan and the probable origin of the fauna of the last. Proceedings of the Society for Promoting the Success of Experimental Sciences and Their Practical Applications named after H.S. Ledencova. Department of Biology, Supplement 4, 144 p. [In Russian].

Milto K.D. and Barabanov A.V. 2012. A Catalogue of the Agamid and Chamaeleonid Types in the Collection of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Russian Journal of Herpetology, 19(2): 155–170.

Nikolsky A.M. 1916. Faunae de la Russie et des pays limitrophes fondée principalement sur les collections du Musée Zoologique de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Petrograd. Reptiles (Reptilia). Vol. II. Ophidia. Imperial Academy of Sciences, Petrograd, 349 p. [In Russian].

Nikolsky G.V. 1938. Fishes of Tajikistan. Acad. Sciences of the USSR, Moscow–Leningrad, 228 p. (Proceedings of the Tajik base. Zoology and parasitology. Tajik base of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Vol. 7). [In Russian].

Pavlovsky E.N. 1933. Parasitological squad. In: A.E. Fersman, N.P. Gorbunov, V.N. Vasiliev et al. (eds). Tajik complex expedition 1932. Academy of Sciences of the USSR; Goskhimtekhizdat, Leningrad branch, Leningrad, 467–473. [In Russian].

Pavlovsky E.N. (ed.). 1961. Zoologists of the Soviet Union: A Handbook. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow–Leningrad, 292 p. [In Russian].

Scarlato O.A. and Yuriev K.B. 1985. Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Zoologicheskiy zhurnal, 64(5): 645–649. [In Russian].

Shermatov G. 2017. Never before and never after. «ASIA-Plus» (Dushanbe, Tajikistan). [In Russian].

Slepkova N.V. 2014. Blockade fate of zoological collection. In: Y.A. Koroleva (ed.). Museum Front of the Great Patriotic War. 1941–1945. Helios APB, Moscow: 498–506. [In Russian].

Sukhova N.G. 2015. Georgy Feodorovich Sukhov (1899–1942): A Biographical Essay. Studies in the History of Biology, 7(1): 63–72. [In Russian].

Talyzin F.F. 1939. For poisonous snakes in the south of the USSR. Medgiz, Moscow–Leningrad: 126 p. (School series. For high school). [In Russian].

Talyzin F.F. 1963. Snakes. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 112 p. [In Russian].

Talyzin F.F. 1973. Secrets of nature (Stories about nature). «Thought», Moscow, 191 p. [In Russian].

Vinogradov B.S., Pavlovsky E.H. and Flerov K.K. 1935. Theria of Tajikistan, their life and significance for humans. Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow–Leningrad (Moscow «Exemplary» printing house), 276 p. (Proceedings of the Tajik base. Zoology and parasitology. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Vol. 1). [In Russian].