We continue to relay the stories of the employees of the IEE RAS, participants of the Great Patriotic War. Ilyenko Andrey Ivanovich at the beginning of the war was on duty on the roof of the old university, on Mokhovaya. Then there was a short evacuation and work in Prokopyevsk. Then the Sverdlovsk Artillery School and the Ukrainian Front. He was seriously wounded in connection with this early mobilization. He was awarded the medal "For Military Merit". In 1956 he graduated from the Department of Vertebrate Zoology of the Biology and Soil Faculty of Moscow State University. He defended his PhD dissertation. Ilyenko headed the laboratory of radioecology of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Animal Ecology. He is considered to be the founder of radioecology. The works of A.I. Ilyenko can rightfully be considered the "golden fund" of domestic ecology. Andrei Ivanovich also left his mark on domestic cynology, finding time to improve the West Siberian Laika breed, achieving its versatility. In his memoirs about the war, Andrei Ivanovich wrote: “The beginning of the Great Patriotic War found me in Perm. I was a collector on an archaeological expedition. The expedition stopped its work, since all the male staff (except me) turned out to be of draft age. On June 23, my senior comrades with great difficulty put me on a train, entrusting me with the care of naval pilots who were being transferred to the front. I had a jar of jam and two kilograms of gingerbread. With this supply, I traveled for several days to Moscow. At all the stations and stops, the train stood for a long time, letting echelons with troops, guns and tanks pass to the West. On July 4, 1941, I was already working as an apprentice electrician at the Moscow State University telephone exchange in the old building. The most vivid impressions of this time were the bombing of Moscow. I often had to be on the roof of the main building of the University during the raids. My post was in the attic above the geography department. All MSU employees at that time were either in the fire brigade, or in the ambulance, or in other teams. Everyone was in barracks and spent the night within the walls of the University. When you look from the roof in the city center, an unforgettable military panorama opens up. On the roof of the Moscow Hotel there is an anti-aircraft battery, on the buildings inside the Kremlin there are platforms with anti-aircraft machine guns. The entire Manezhnaya Square is painted to look like the roofs of houses. If the raid began at night, German planes dropped flares over Moscow on parachutes, showering the entire city center with incendiary bombs. Tracer bullets and shells flew into the sky from all sides. Shrapnel clicked on the iron roof. It was beautiful and scary. Once I managed to put out an incendiary bomb in the attic of the University. Then I worked in factories in Siberia and the Urals. Komsomol members were eager to get to the front, held the district committee and the military registration and enlistment office under siege. Everyone, starting with the director, applied, but only one person was accepted. Only later, having deceived the military commissar, I and one of my comrades managed to escape from the plant and join the army. I fought as a loader, and then as a gunner of an anti-tank gun. On December 2, 1943, our brigade went on the offensive with the task of capturing the railway station and the settlement of Čanovichi. In this difficult battle against the German infantry and large tank units, many of my comrades died, and I myself was wounded. The wound was serious. I lay in hospitals until the end of February 1944, and after the commission I was demobilized "due to limited fitness". For me, the war was over. Now, remembering this difficult time for our Motherland, it’s amazing to think what an enormous feat our people accomplished. This is especially true for the youth, who selflessly worked in the rear and showed steadfastness in battle. We had no doubts about our victory."

Fig. 1. Two specimens of dried Pacific spadenose sharks purchased from the OZON online store. Scientists from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Dagestan State University have found that the appearance of a new product in some Russian online stores – dried sharks (Fig. 1), intended for feeding and playing with pets (cats, dogs, and rodents), increases the already serious anthropogenic load on the population of the Pacific spadenose shark Scoliodon macrorhynchos. Fig. 2. Label of a product made from dried Pacific sharpnose sharks, sold through the OZON online store. Cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays and chimaeras) are one of the oldest groups of lower vertebrates, which in recent decades have been subjected to serious negative anthropogenic impacts (overfishing, habitat destruction, environmental pollution, etc.). Many shark species are caught as a result of virtually unregulated and uncontrolled fishing and are used for the production of food and technical products. The Pacific spadenose shark Scoliodon macrorhynchos is an object of intensive fishing in most of the species range (distributed from Japan to the eastern part of the Indian Ocean). Its numbers in Chinese waters have been declining in recent years, while stocks around Taiwan and off the coast of Sarawak (Borneo, Malaysia) show signs of overfishing. This species, along with other representatives of the Carcharhinidae family, is listed in Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and has been assigned the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) status of NT (near threatened). Recently, a new product for pets has appeared in some Russian online stores (Ozon, Wildberries and RedMall) - dried gutted specimens of the Pacific sharpnose shark (Fig. 2 and 3), supplied from China. A study of the dried sharks purchased in the online store showed that they were all juveniles, which worsens the already threatened state of the populations of this species. Fig. 3. Advertisement for a product made from dried Pacific spadenose sharks on the websites "OZON" and "Wildberries". Addressing further threats to S. macrorhynchos populations requires a ban on undersized fisheries, improved regional and national fisheries management, regular population monitoring, and increased CITES enforcement of international trade controls. Published data from the article: Orlov A.M., Zinevich L.S., Rabazanov N.I., Korostelev N.B. 2025. New product adds pressure on Pacific spadenose shark Scoliodon macrorhynchos (Carcharhinidae) // Ecologica Montenegrina. Vol. 83. P. 120–130.

We continue to talk about the employees of the IEE RAS who participated in the Great Patriotic War. Korzhuev Petr Aleksandrovich after graduating from Moscow State University began working at the Institute of Blood Transfusion. With the beginning of the war, he volunteered for the front and served first as a private in the 1st rifle division, the sanitary department of the 3rd Belorussian Front, then he was awarded the rank of captain, and later - major of the medical service. In the army, Petr Alekseevich headed the Blood Service and was an assistant to the chief surgeon of the front. Already in 1941, two of his works were published, dedicated to the respiratory function of blood. He continued this work after demobilization in 1945. He was awarded medals: "For the capture of Koenigsberg", "For the defense of Moscow", "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree. In peacetime, he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor. In 1949, he defended his doctoral dissertation, and in 1950, he received the A.N. Severtsov Prize. He published his first work in 1932. In total, more than 240 of his works were published. Petr Aleksandrovich wrote the following about himself: “After graduating from university, I began working at the Institute of Blood Transfusion. When the war began, I volunteered for the front and initially served as a private. Later, as a blood specialist, I was appointed captain of the blood service, first on an army scale, and then on the front, and became an assistant to the chief surgeon. After the end of the war and demobilization, I returned to scientific work. I was developing measures to preserve the Caspian sturgeon stock. I managed to put forward a number of proposals that later formed the basis for developing pools for growing caviar at fish factories in the country. At the same time, I wrote two theoretical articles on the problem of osmoregulation in the origin of warm-blooded animals. Now, in science, specialization of scientific work is clearly evident: everyone closes in on their own narrow field and solves their own narrow problem. While real scientists and major scientific works are characterized by a broad, comprehensive coverage of scientific problems, my main and fundamental problem is to identify the effect of gravity in the evolution of life on our planet and the influence of this factor on the evolution of vertebrates. My second major work is the study of the respiratory functions of blood. For this, I was awarded the Academician A.N. Severtsov Prize."

On April 10, the award ceremony of the II national prize "Rassvet" in the field of environmental education and nature photography took place. The "Lake Baikal" Foundation and the IEE RAS became the laureate in the nomination "Best project for a protected area". The award was given to the project "Study of the Baikal seal on the Ushkany Islands (territory of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Zapovednoye Podlemorye")". The result of the project, among other things, was receiving more than 5,000 photographs and 48 videos of seals hauling out on the islands for visual censuses. Photographs play a key role in visual censuses of endemics, as they help scientists and researchers record data on populations and their habitat, and comparing photographs over time allows tracking changes in populations and their habitat. The work on studying Baikal seals is carried out in cooperation with the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Zapovednoye Podlemorye". In 2024, the project was implemented with the support of private donors of the Lake Baikal Foundation and a charitable donation from the World Around You Foundation to the Siberian Wellness company. Related materials Infinitum: "The project supported by INFINITUM became the winner of the national environmental education award "Rassvet""

Scopus has provided new scientometric data on journals for 2024, according to which the journal "Problems of Ichthyology/Journal of Ichthyology" entered the second quartile (Q2). In 2024, the journal's SJR (an analogue of the impact factor) increased from 0.217 to 0.325, the number of published articles decreased from 128 to 109, the number of citations increased from 176 to 289, the number of cited articles increased from 125 to 162, and the number of citations per article increased from 0.540 to 0.812. International participation (the share of articles with foreign authors) also increased from 8.59 to 14.68%. The journal "Problems of Ichthyology" has been published under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Biological Sciences Division) since 1953. The editor-in-chief of the journal is the scientific director of the IEE RAS, academician of the RAS, doctor of biological sciences Dmitry Sergeevich Pavlov. The journal is the leading national scientific publication in all areas of ichthyology and biological foundations of fisheries. All articles published in the journal are peer-reviewed and contain original information that is the result of scientific research in taxonomy, evolution, molecular biology, morphology, fauna, zoogeography, genetics, physiology, ecology, behavior, reproduction, embryology, invasions and protection of fish and fisheries biology, as well as some applied aspects. The journal publishes articles on marine, oceanic and freshwater fish from any region of the globe.

For the 80th anniversary of the Victory Day, we are starting a series of publications about the employees of the IEE RAS, participants in the Great Patriotic War. And the first hero of our stories will be Zakharenko Anton Illarionovich. "The war found me in Moscow, although I served not far from Brest, in the city of Kortuz-Bereza. On June 20, I arrived in Moscow on leave for 30 days, but on Sunday, June 22, I was already back at the front. Of course, I did not meet my unit, although, overcoming many obstacles, I still made it to Minsk, which was engulfed in flames. The Minsk city military registration and enlistment office sent me and other singles, also unarmed, to Smolensk, where I was enrolled in the 64th rifle division (separate reconnaissance battalion Ш63). At first it was very difficult and scary; it was necessary to obtain information about the enemy that interested the command, for which it was necessary to crawl near the enemy's location. It was hot, the ground around was dug up by bombs and shells, strewn with corpses of people and animals, it was simply impossible to breathe. But then I somehow got used to it and became embittered, and it became much easier. At that time, our division repeatedly went on the counterattack, and although we inflicted great losses on the enemy, we ourselves suffered significant losses. I received my first wound - a concussion - on September 3, but three days later I was back in action and continued the difficult work of a reconnaissance officer. Then we had to retreat beyond the Dnieper. At the significant and sad Solovyova crossing, I saw a terrible picture: we were continuously bombed by the fascists, one group of planes was flying away, and another was already approaching. Soon we were sent to Voronezh for reinforcements, then to Kursk and further to Serpukhov, where I went behind the German lines three times with a group of fighters. One night we blew up two dugouts, covered mortars that were standing in a cemetery with sand, and took a tablet with a map and letters from a dead officer. On our way back, we ran into an ambush, but noticed it in time and were able to fight off the Germans. There were some sad stories, too. One forester reported that the Germans were going to the neighboring forest guardhouse to have a drink. We set up an ambush at the edge of the forest near the guardhouse and lay on the frozen ground until morning. In the morning, a whole hundred Germans entered the courtyard of the guardhouse, and three horsemen rode to the river. I raised the soldiers and ran to the river to intercept the horsemen, but my legs were not obeying me, it was very cold, and the soldiers fell behind. The horsemen quickly turned and went straight for me. I fell behind a tree and pointed my machine gun at the first horseman, but the shot did not happen - the machine gun froze, and we lost the targets. We were unable to catch up with the horsemen, only a thrown grenade injured a horse. This was worse than death, since we lost the enemy, and I got hurt in the attempt. Then our division became the 7th Guards Division, and many fighters received awards for defeating the Germans near Moscow. Our company, renamed from the reconnaissance battalion, took part in the battles near Kryukovo station and advanced along the Leningrad highway. After reinforcements, we were sent to Staraya Russa on the Northwestern Front. On March 5, 1942, a group of 22 people, led by the commander, Captain F. Tsapurin, and me with the remaining nine fighters of the platoon, were sent to the rear of the Germans with the task of mining three roads and taking a prisoner. On the evening of March 7, we dug into the snow at a fork in the road and waited for the enemy. It was a very bright moonlit night, there was a severe frost, but no one got up. Two horses harnessed to a sleigh rode out of the forest, each of which had two people with machine guns. I fired at the first group, and the soldiers fired at the second with rifles, but the horses carried the Germans into the forest, and only two Nazis, both in straw bast shoes, fell down dead; a full pillowcase with letters from Germany lay near them. After waiting a little, we went around this place through the forest and came out onto the road. We took everything we needed and left the corpses lying around. At 10 a.m. an empty cart was moving back, with 15 soldiers walking behind it with rifles at the ready, three paces apart. They threw the corpses on the sled and drove away; we did not touch them. Of course, they decided that we had left, but they were still on guard, apparently afraid of this place. I decided that a larger and bolder group would return, and sent a messenger to the company commander with a request to gather everyone at the fork. The commander agreed, everyone gathered there and settled down on three sides. At 6 p.m. the wind picked up, and we saw that more than 100 Germans were moving along the clearing straight toward us. We let the head of the column onto the road and opened fire from three sides. The German captain was killed, the rest rushed about, got stuck in the snow, and no one escaped. One German non-commissioned officer raised his hands and surrendered. We seized the captured weapons and, without wasting time with the prisoner, went back the other way, crawled across the front line under the illumination of the rockets and returned safely. We were hungry, tired, but very happy, and then it became known that 13 Germans had been killed. This was written in the newspaper Izvestia under the headline "Pathfinders". (Note from the institute wall newspaper for the 30th anniversary of the Victory).

Photo: Cryptochaetosyllis imitatio Jimi, Britayev & Martin in comparison with the nudibranch Coryphellina exoptata (photo by O.V. Savinkin and T.I. Antokhina, IEE RAS). As in previous years, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) has released its annual list of the ten most interesting marine species described by researchers in the past year. This top ten list is just a small selection of the 3,200 marine species described in 2024. All of the selected species encompass the weird, the mind-boggling, and the wonderful! Among these species are a mysterious clam, an anglerfish, and a polychaete worm that mimics a nudibranch. One of these amazing species was described by an international team of authors, including a member of our institute. Imitation is often considered the sincerest form of flattery... or, in the marine environment, the best way to get a free lunch. The newly described polychaete Cryptochaetosyllis imitatio Jimi, Britayev et Martin 2024 lives on soft corals in tropical reefs of the Western Pacific. The body of this unusual worm is brightly colored, contains few segments, has only a few simple setae, and large spindle-shaped dorsal antennae. Its closest known relatives have many more segments, short dorsal antennae, and parapodia with many jointed setae. The highly modified appearance of Cryptochaetosyllis imitatio offers two intriguing possibilities. The color patterns and body shape provide camouflage on the surface of branching soft corals, allowing it to hide from predators. However, the narrow body of this worm, its sparse but long processes, and bright coloration strongly resemble the morphology of nudibranchs, whose diet of coral tissue and ability to incorporate their stinging capsules into their body provide reliable protection from predators. Link to the full WORMS press release: https://marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2024/press-release Link to the publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-66465-4

Photo: Amur sleeper Parasitism of one vertebrate host species by more than one parasite species belonging to the same genus is not a rare phenomenon in flatworms. However, in the composition of different taxa of cestodes and trematodes, most often there are no more than three species of the same genus confined to one vertebrate species. The microevolutionary mechanisms of the emergence of such groups of species in cestodes and trematodes, as a rule, remain unclear. Photo: The anterior end of the body of Nippotaenia with a sucker-like attachment organ Scientists from the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) in collaboration with colleagues from Russia, China and Japan studied the genetic diversity of cestodes of the genus Nippotaenia from the intestines of the Amur sleeper (Perccottus glenii), an invasive freshwater fish that has spread widely in many countries of Europe and the Asian part of our country over the past hundred years. The results of studying two DNA loci indicate the possible existence of five species of these parasites associated with this host. This study does not confirm the current taxonomic concept of parasitism of the Amur sleeper by a single species of Nippotaenia. To date, the putative species have been characterized only at the molecular level. "Obtaining morphological evidence of the species isolation of these cestodes is a matter for the future. All five putative species were found in the Amur sleeper within the native part of its range. “Only two Nippotaenia species have been recorded in the acquired part of the fish range, one of which has only a local distribution,” said Sergey Sokolov, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Identification of the genetic diversity of Nippotaenia opens up additional opportunities for studying the routes of the Amur sleeper introduction. The results of the study were published in the journal Hydrobiologia (SJR, Q1): Sokolov, S.G., Vlasenko, P.G., Urabe, M Atopkin. D.M., Reshetnikov, A.N., Yang, P., Izotova, G.V., Shedko, M.B. & Solovyev, M.M. 2025. Hidden diversity of cestode Nippotaenia in a widely distributed invasive fish Perccottus glenii. Hydrobiologia 852, 1903–1920.

Nine projects supervised by IEE RAS researchers took part in the competition of research projects in natural sciences "Science and Research: Discoveries Every Day" for schoolchildren. On April 5, the defense of research projects took place in the Library of Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences - schoolchildren made presentations and talked about the results of their activities. From October 2024 to February 2025, classes for schoolchildren were held at IEE RAS. As part of independent work, the children prepared final papers, which were assessed by experts from IEE RAS and third-party organizations. Photos from the defense can be viewed at the link. The following projects were prepared: 1. Vybornova Miloslava Igorevna Student of grade 7 "I" of State Budgetary Educational Institution School No. 1158 Project Topic: "Why do water fleas have spines?" Curator: A.N. Neretina, PhD in Biology, research fellow of the Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2. Butrimayte Alexandra Andryusovna Student of grade 8 "B" of State Budgetary Educational Institution School No. 67 Project Topic: "Formation of wings in water fleas: morphological adaptation or an important taxonomic feature?" Curator: A.N. Neretina, PhD, research associate, Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions, IEE RAS 3. Sidnev Ivan Ivanovich 8th grade student, State Budgetary Educational Institution School No. 2007, Physics and Mathematics School Project Topic: "Profitability of Growing Sugar Beet Crops from the Point of View of the Impact of the Sugar Beet Nematode Heterodera schachtii" Curator: L.A. Limantseva, PhD, research associate and postgraduate students, Laboratory of Phytoparasitology, IEE RAS 4. Nikitin Makar Aleksandrovich 8th grade student, State Budgetary Educational Institution School No. 2089 Fedchenko Valeria Pavlovna 8th grade student, Municipal Budgetary Educational Institution Secondary School No. 8, Zhukovsky Scientific project topic: "Study of injuries and skin lesions of toothed whales in some areas of the Atlantic Ocean" Curator: P.V. Chukmasov, junior researcher, Laboratory of behavior and behavioral ecology of mammals, IEE RAS 5. Yutsikova Maria Aleksandrovna Student of grade 9 "Ch" of State Autonomous Educational Institution School No. 548 Fedchenko Valeria Pavlovna Student of grade 8 of Municipal Budgetary Educational Institution Secondary School No. 8, Zhukovsky Project topic: "Study of marine debris in some areas of the Atlantic Ocean" Curator: P.V. Chukmasov, junior researcher, Laboratory of behavior and behavioral ecology of mammals, IEE RAS 6. Rybalova Maria Leonidovna Student of grade 11 "D" of the State Budgetary Educational Institution School No. 171 Scientific project topic: "Aviofaunal survey of southeastern Chukotka: determination of the number and distribution of anseriformes and semi-aquatic birds based on photographic materials" Curator: S.B. Rosenfeld, senior researcher of the IEE RAS, PhD 7. Burov-Staskov Ignat Alekseevich Student of grade "10" of the Municipal Educational Institution of Additional Education "MAN Impulse" Scientific project topic: "Study of the social behavior of the field mouse Apodemus agrarius (Pallas, 1771) under experimental conditions" Curator: A.A. Soktin, employee of the IEE RAS, teacher of additional education at the MUDO TsDO "MAN Impuls" 8. Fedchenko Valeria Pavlovna Student of grade 8 "B" of the MBOU Secondary School No. 8 of the Zhukovsky Urban District Scientific project topic: "Determination of the fertility of the golden potato nematode Globodera rostochiensis in the conditions of the Moscow Region" Curator: L.A. Limantseva, PhD, researcher and laboratory of phytoparasitology at the IEE RAS 9. Arshavsky Nikita Romanovich Popel Dmitry Aleksandrovich Students of grade 10 "Ch" of the State Autonomous Educational Institution School No. 548 Project topic: "Study of parasites, beet nematode" Curator: L.A. Limantseva, PhD, research fellow and laboratory of phytoparasitology of IEE RAS We congratulate the children on the successful defense of their projects and wish them further success in science! Related materials: BEN RAS: "Final of the school projects competition: "Science and research: discoveries every day"

The Flint Crane Working Group Of Eurasia Newsletter is an annual publication on the current state of crane populations and their habitats, scientific research, international cooperation in the field of crane study and conservation, limiting factors, interesting facts, conferences and meetings. The issue is available for download at the link.