The Laboratory of Evolutionary Morphology Problems was created in 1977 on the initiative of Academician V.E. Sokolov, through the merger of the Evolutionary Morphology Group (the former laboratory of Academician I.I. Schmalhausen at the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, relocated to Moscow in 1976) and the Laboratory of Comparative Vertebrate Embryology, one of the Institute's oldest laboratories. Its history traces back to the Department of Ontogeny of the Sector of Morphology of Modern Animals of the Institute of Animal Evolution, headed from 1934 to 1960 by Professor B.S. Matveev. From its foundation until the spring of 2014, the Laboratory of Evolutionary Morphology Problems was headed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Emilia Ivanovna Vorobyeva. Under her leadership, a large body of work was carried out on the comparative and functional morphology, development, and evolution of lower vertebrates, both fossil and extant. Since 2014, the laboratory has been headed by Doctor of Biological Sciences Sergey Vasilyevich Smirnov.
