Symposium on the Evolution of Marine Mammals
honoring Guram Mchedlidze
29 September – 1 October 2016
The Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia is organizing a symposium dedicated to the 85th
anniversary of Dr. Guram Mchedlidze (1931–2009), an internationally renowned Georgian marine
mammal paleontologist.
Oral and poster presentations are welcome on various aspects of the evolution of marine mammals,
including but not limited to:
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Paleontology
Taxonomy and phylogeny
Anatomy
Genetics
Phylogeography/Paleobiogeography
Paleoecology and evolutionary ecology
Field collection, lab preparation, and study of museum collections
The symposium will be held in the Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia from September 29 to
October 1 2016.
Guram Mchedlidze
Dr. Guram Mchedlidze (1931-2009) was a Georgian academician and a world-renowned paleobiologist who
studied fossil whales. Dr. Guram Mchedlidze surveyed geology and paleobiology in institutions and museums all
over the Soviet Union. His primary interests included excavating and studying Mio-Pliocene vertebrate sites in the
Caucasus region (Georgia, Azerbaijan, and North Caucasus) and identified new fossils, which were previously
unknown. The collection of marine mammals gathered by Dr. Mchedlidze is one of the richest in Europe. This
collection now is stored in the S. Janashia Museum of Georgia (one of the ten museums unified under the Georgian
National Museum).
Dr. Guram Mchedlidze published more than one hundred scientific papers, seven monographs, and is one of the
co-authors of the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Dr. Guram Mchedlidze successfully combined productive
scientific research with numerous teaching responsibilities. He was a member of several editorial boards of various
scientific journals, a board member of the committee on issues of evolution of flora and fauna at the Academy of
Sciences of the USSR, a corresponding member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (USA), and a member of
the Georgian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Guram Mchedlidze was a director of Leo Davitashvili Institute of Paleobiology from 1989 until the end of his
life. Guram was “a renaissance man”, who was a highly trained pianist, a noble, internationally respected professor
and scientist, and a real Georgian patriot.
The Museum of Georgia, Institute of Paleobiology and collections of fossil vertebrates
The Museum of Georgia - the institution where the fossil mammal collections are stored, is the oldest museum in
the region; its history dates back to the founding of the Museum of the Caucasian Department of the Russian Royal
Geographic Society in 1852, soon transformed into the Caucasian Museum (in 1865). Today, it is one of the ten
museums unified under the Georgian National Museum (GNM), while the Institute of Paleobiology is one of the
scientific centers of the GNM.
Since 2005, efforts have been made to consolidate and organize fossil collections kept in the National Museum of
Georgia and the Institute of Paleobiology. Presently, all vertebrate fossil collections of the Museum and the
Institute of Paleobiology are stored in the Vertebrate Paleontology Collections of the Museum of Georgia. These
holdings include some of the very first vertebrate fossil collections from the region, such as fossils collected by the
Swedish geologist Hjalmar Sjögren from Perekeshkul, Azerbaidjan, and Dr. Guram Mchedlidze’s collection of
marine mammals.
Preliminary Program of the Symposium
 Wednesday, September 28- Arrival and registration
 Thursday and Friday, September 29-30 - Scientific presentations and discussions
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Saturday, October 1 - field trip
Meeting Contributions
Abstracts for oral and poster contributions should include: Abstract title, Authors’ names, Authors’
affiliations and e-mail addresses. Abstract text should be no more than 500 words; please do not include
tables, figures or reference lists.
Oral presentations: 20 minutes, including questions and answers, unless you are invited to give a
plenary talk.
Poster presentations: A0 (117x84 cm) or a similar format is the most suitable size. Additional small
poster handouts are welcome.
International travel and accommodation
The symposium will not cover international travel and accommodation. Participants are expected to
book their own accommodation in Tbilisi. A list with different hotels, accommodations and prices will
be included in the Second Circular.
Registration fee will be announced in the 2nd circular. It will include costs of conference materials, coffee
breaks, meals and the field trip. The GNM is now fundraising to partially cover these costs.
Deadlines
 Please, fill and return the pre-registration form attached below before January31, 2016.
 Distribution of the Second Circular: February 28, 2016
 Short papers or abstracts submission: May 30, 2016
 Distribution of Third Circular: June 30, 2016
Contact
Maia Bukhsianidze
Georgian National Museum
3, Rustaveli ave. Tbilisi 0105, Georgia
e-mail: maiabukh@gmail.com
Looking forward to seeing you in Tbilisi
Cordially,
Members of the organizing and scientific committee:
David Lordkipanidze, Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi
Maia Bukhsianidze, Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi
Pavel Gol’din, Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, Kiev
Irina Koretsky, Howard University, Washington DC
Mark D. Uhen, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia