Academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Fedonkin (russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Федо́нкин; born June 19, 1946) is a Russian

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

specializing in documentation of the earliest animals' body fossils, tracks, and trails. He has also described numerous Vendian-aged fossils including '' Hiemalora'', ''

Cephalonega ''Cephalonega stepanovi'' is a fossil organism from Ediacaran deposits of the Arkhangelsk Region, Russia. It was described by Mikhail A. Fedonkin in 1976 Name Its original genus name ''Onega'' comes from the Onega Peninsula of the White Sea ...

'', and '' Nimbia occlusa''.

Early life

Fedonkin was born in Orekhovo-Zuevo,

Moscow Region Moscow Oblast ( rus, Моско́вская о́бласть, r=Moskovskaya oblast', p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ), or Podmoskovye ( rus, Подмоско́вье, p=pədmɐˈskovʲjə, literally "under Moscow"), is a federal subject of Rus ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. In 1969, Fedonkin presented a thesis titled "Biostratigraphy and paleontology of the Late Precambrian deposits of Kharaulakh Mountains, Northern Yakutia (Sakha)" to earn his MSc in

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

from

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. He went on to obtain a PhD in Stratigraphy\

Paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

(1978) and a Doctorate of Science in

Paleobiology Paleobiology (or palaeobiology) is an interdisciplinary field that combines the methods and findings found in both the earth sciences and the life sciences. Paleobiology is not to be confused with geobiology, which focuses more on the interactio ...

(1985) from the Geological Institute,

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

for his dissertations on "Precambrian fauna and trace fossils from the Russian Platform north" and "Non-skeletal fauna of the Vendian and its place in the evolution of metazoans", respectively.

Career

In 1971, Dr. Fedonkin was a Junior Scientific Researcher at the Geological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow. In 1978, he became a Senior Scientific Researcher at the Paleontological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow. In 1985 he was promoted to be the Lead Scientific Researcher. Since 1992, Fedonkin has been the Head of the laboratory of Precambrian paleobiology at the Paleontological Institute of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...

. Over his career he has completed field work in Australia,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Awards

* 1997, awarded the

Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal is an award presented by the National Academy of Sciences every five years to promote research and study in the fields of Precambrian and Cambrian life and history. The medal was established and endowed in 1934 by ...

by the National Academy of Sciences * 2000, awarded the Peter The Great Medal for the merits in the revival of science and economics in Russia by the International Academy of Science on Nature and Society.

Selected publications

Books

* 1981. White Sea Biota of the Vendian (Precambrian non-skeletal fauna of the Russian Platform north). Transactions of the Geological Institute, vol. 342. Moscow, Nauka, p. 1-100. (In Russian). * 1983. Organic World of the Vendian. Moscow, VINITI, p. 1-128. (In Russian). * 1987. Non-skeletal Fauna and Its Place in the Evolution of Metazoans. Transactions of the Paleontological Institute, vol. 226. Moscow, Nauka, p. 1-176. (In Russian).

Scientific publications

* Fedonkin M.A. 1976. Traces of the multicellular animals from Valdai Series. Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, ser. geol., N 4, p. 128-132. (In Russian). * Keller B.M. and Fedonkin M.A. 1977. New organic fossil finds in the Precambrian Valdai Series along the Syuz'ma River. Internat. Geol. Rev., 19(8), p. 924-930. (Translation of the previous paper). * Fedonkin M.A. 1980. Early stages of evolution of Metazoa on the basis of the paleoichnological data. Zhurnal Obchei Biologii, N 2, c. 226-233. (In Russian, abstract in English). * Fedonkin, M.A. 1990. Precambrian metazoans. In: Briggs, D.E.G. & Crowther, P.R., eds., Palaeobiology. A Synthesis. Blackwell Scientific Publ. Ltd., p. 17-24. * Crimes T.P. and Fedonkin M.A. 1994. Evolution and dispersal of deepsea traces. Palaios, vol. 9, N 1, p. 74-83. * Fedonkin M.A. 1996. Geobiological trends and events in the Precambrian biosphere. In: Walliser O.H. (ed.) Global Events and Event Stratigraphy in the Phanerozoic: Results of the International Interdisciplinary Cooperation in the IGCP-Project 216 "Global Biological Events in Earth History"). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 89–112. * Lipps J.H., Collins A.G. and Fedonkin M.A. 1998. Evolution of biological complexity: Evidence from geology, paleontology and molecular biology. In: Hoover R.B. (ed.) Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology. Proceedings of the International Society for Optical Engineering, vol. 3441, p. 138-148. * Fedonkin, M.A. and Ivantsov A. Yu. 2001. Faunal succession in the Vendian (Terminal Proterozoic) deposits of the White Sea Region, north of the Russian Platform. North American Paleontological Convention, Berkeley, California. Abstracts. P. 50.

References

External links

National Academy of Science Awards

Fedonkin Curriculum Vitae

Talk of Mikhail A. Fedonkin at the Origins 2011 congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fedonkin, Mikhail A. 1946 births Living people Russian paleontologists Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal winners