The main tasks of the Laboratory's research program:
- developing the problem of organismal integrity in onto- and phylogeny;
- studying the patterns of morphological evolution and its mechanisms;
- developing criteria and principles of phylogenetics;
- developing methods for assessing morphological, morphogenetic, genetic, and ecological diversity of lower vertebrates at the population and species levels;
- inventorying the biodiversity and species composition of amphibians in Russia and neighboring countries.
The laboratory conducts comprehensive research on evolutionary-morphological problems, ecology, paleontology, faunistics, phylogenetics, and taxonomy of fish, amphibians, and reptiles. It studies the patterns of distribution of Palearctic amphibians in relation to their ecological and morphological diversification, the evolution of life cycles, as well as the trophic relationships of amphibians in ontogeny, the problem of competition, the role of species in communities, and their conservation.
