GILBERT, S. F.; MIKHAILOV, A. T.; Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA; University of La Coru�a, Spain: THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT of the A. O. KOWALEVSKY MEDAL

The St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists has reinstated the Alexander O. Kowalevsky Medal for Evolutionary and Comparative Embryology. This medal was instituted in 1910, but it had not been awarded until 2001. Its first designees are D. Anderson (Australia), G. Freeman (USA), B. Hall (Canada), O. Ivanova-Kazas (Russia), C. Nielsen (Denmark), R. Raff (USA), R. Riedl (Austria), and K. Sander (Germany). A. O. Kowalevsky had made numerous contributions to evolutionary and comparative embryology, and this talk will concentrate on his landmark discoveries linking vertebrate and invertebrate animals through their notochords and pharyngeal arches. These studies were critical for Darwin’s model of descent with modification, and they became popular examples for the unity of animal life.