Werner W. Schwarzhans. Zoological Museum, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 København, Denmark; and Ahrensburger Weg 103, 22359 Hamburg, Germany. wwschwarz@aol.com, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4842-7989
Dr Werner Schwarzhans, of Hamburg, Germany, is an associated researcher with the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. He has worked as a geologist and has studied fossil otoliths and recent fishes and otoliths for 50 years. In 140 scientific publications he has described more than 1000 otolith-based fossil fishes and about 130 extant fish species. Recent work focuses on regional fossil fish faunas on a worldwide scale, aligning skeletal and otolith-based fossil fish taxa through finds of otoliths in situ and systematic reviews of certain groups of extant fishes.
Oleksandr Klots. Khmelnytskyi city organization of the National union of local historians of Ukraine, Maidan Nezalezhnosti 1, Khmelnytskyi 29001, Ukraine. o_m_klets@ukr.net
Oleksandr Klots is a Ukrainian naturalist, botanist, ecologist, local historian, journalist, and public figure. For more than 30 years, he has been researching the flora and vegetation of Podillia, in particular the Middle Transnistrian region and the Tovtry ridge with an emphasis on phytosozology and monitoring invasive species. Oleksandr Klots actively participated in the development of the protected area and the formation of a modern ecological network of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast. He initiated the creation of new territories and objects of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine, contributed to the diversification of the categories of the reserve, as well as the expansion of the boundaries and raising of their status. In recent years, he has been interested in historical geology and geomorphology, in particular, Toutras (Medobory). The object of Mr Klots' scientific interest are the fossil remains of extinct organisms of the Sarmatian Sea of the Central Paratethys.
Oleksandr Kovalchuk. Department of Palaeontology, National Museum of Natural History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Bohdana Khmelnytskoho 15, Kyiv 01054 Ukraine. biologiest@ukr.net and Department of Palaeozoology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Wrocław, Sienkiewicza 21, Wrocław 50-335, Poland. Corresponding author, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9545-208X
Oleksandr Kovalchuk is a Leading Researcher at the Department of Palaeontology, National Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine as well as Assistant Professor at the Department of Palaeozoology in the University of Wrocław (Poland). Oleksandr Kovalchuk graduated from the A.S. Makarenko Sumy State Pedagogical University (Ukraine) in 2012. He received his PhD in 2015 and DSc degree in Biology in 2020 at the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. His research interests are related to morphology, historical faunistics, palaeogeography and palaeoecology of Cenozoic and Mesozoic vertebrates of Europe, in particular freshwater and marine fishes.
Anastasiia Dubikovska. Department of Biology and Biology Teaching Methodology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Geography, A.S. Makarenko Sumy State Pedagogical University, Romenska 87, Sumy 40002, Ukraine. oakovska@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7191-0090
Anastasiia Dubikovska is a Master in Biology. She graduated from the A.S. Makarenko Sumy State Pedagogical University (Ukraine) in 2024 and she is planning to start her PhD studies in Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Anastasiia is interested in different fields of biological research, especially those accompanied with expeditions and trips. On her free time, she likes to make and listen to music, drawing traditional and digital arts and watching the gameplays on YouTube.
Tamara Ryabokon. Institute of Geological Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Olesia Honchara 55b, Kyiv 01054, Ukraine. tamararyabokon@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6530-3684
Dr Tamara Ryabokon is a Head of the Department of Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Cenozoic sediments of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Her research interests relate to stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, palaeogeography of the Paleogene of Ukraine; creating, modernization and actualization of stratigraphic scheme of the Paleogene deposits of Ukraine. She is also studied Paleogene plankton and benthic foraminifera of southern and northern Ukraine. She interested in database on stratigraphic units of the Paleogene of Ukraine, questions of stratigraphic classification and nomenclature.
Volodymyr Kovalenko. Institute of Geological Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Olesia Honchara 55b, Kyiv 01054, Ukraine. kovva@ukr.net
Dr Volodymyr Kovalenko is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Cenozoic sediments of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. His interests are focused on biostratigraphy and palaeogeography of the Neogene of Ukraine based on molluscs and ostracods.
