The All-Russian Paleobotanical Conference with international participation "Fundamental Problems of the Study of Plant Fossils: Morphology, Taxonomy, Ecology, Geography, Evolution, and Stratigraphic Significance" was held at the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences on December 17-19, 2025.
The event was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Meyen (1935–1987), a prominent Soviet paleobotanist and evolutionary theorist who integrated biology and stratigraphy, proposing that biological variation (polymorphism) and organismal development are key to understanding stratigraphy. During three days, scientists from across Russia discussed a variety of topical issues. These included theoretical problems in paleobotany and general issues in the evolutionary theory; Phanerozoic paleobotany, palynology, and stratigraphy; the origin of major plant groups; and the origin and evolution of early angiosperms. Conference participants also presented reports which concerned: geographical distribution and macroevolutionary patterns of higher plants; contemporary issues in paleophytogeography; fossil plant record and global climatic change; plant morphology in light of paleobotany; modern and fossil plant typology and systematics. Researchers from the Micropaleontology Laboratory, IPGG SB RAS, delivered two reports at the conference. The presentation by Ekaterina Peshchevitskaya, PhD (geol.-mineral.), was focused on the paleofacies and biostratigraphy of Barremian-Aptian sequences of terrestrial and lacustrine palynomorphs in the Belaya Gora section (Transbaikalia, Chita District). The presentation by Olga Kuzmina, PhD (geol.-mineral.), was focused on the Oligocene and Miocene fossil pollen of the genus Decodon (Lythraceae) in the southern West Siberia. – My report was about the pollen hitherto unknown in the Western Siberian spectra, which was found to be of taxonomic value and useful for describing the examined genus ,” Olga Kuzmina noted. The IPGG SB RAS representatives participated at the conference in the online format.

Published by IPGG Press Service Photo: E.B. Peshchevitskaya and O.B. Kuzmina at the International Symposium on Cretaceous Biota and the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary in Jiaying, China (from the IPGG SB RAS photo archive)