The Arctic Sirenia project was presented at the Eastern Economic Forum, which aims to revive the Steller’s sea cow, a sea mammal that was completely exterminated by humans 250 years ago.

Our team received a unique sample, selected by Sergei Kornev, the head of the marine mammal laboratory at the Kamchatka Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography. This particular sample was obtained from the skull of a Steller’s sea cow, discovered several years ago on Paramushir Island (Kuril Islands, Russia).

At the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, within the framework of the II Scientific Forum «Genetic Resources of Russia», the Second All-Russian Conference «Zoological collections as a source of genetic resources of the world fauna — classical and modern approaches to their study, storage and use» was held.

Mentions of our project and its participants began to appear in leading publications!

According to preliminary estimates, 23% of the samples showed a high content of ancient DNA.