The article reconstructs the main stages of the revolution in the science of organic nature and the reconstruction of biology based on the theory of evolution. It is shown that with their scientific achievements, zoologists of the Kyiv Society of Nature Researchers (hereinafter – KSNR) changed modern biological science, especially its zoological component. In addition, individual Kyiv zoologists were the founders of new scientific disciplines that were formed at the first stage of the development of evolutionary theory (O. O. Kovalevsky – evolutionary embryology, O. M. Severtsov – evolutionary morphology, V. O. Karavaev – comparative zoopsychology, M. M. Voskoboynikov – functional morphology).

The contribution of KSNR zoologists to the development of the main methods of studying the evolutionary process: paleontological, embryological, morphological, biogeographical, and systematic has been clarified. The question of the development of evolutionary morphology and zoopsychology has not been neglected. The focus is primarily on those aspects of the zoological heritage and the activities of Ukrainian zoologists, which have provided KSNR with the greatest authority in domestic and world science – in the field of embryology. A detailed analysis of the works of embryologists and those scientists who briefly dealt with embryological issues will allow us to delve deeper into their way of thinking and the essence of the scientific method, to feel their positions, and to more fully understand their scientific patriotism.

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