Natalia Ananjeva (Russian: Наталья Ананьева, born January 5, 1946) is a Russian herpetologist, zoologist, and a specialist in taxonomy, phylogeny, the biogeography of Eurasian reptiles and amphibians, and the conservation of their biodiversity.
Biography
Natalia Ananjeva was born in Leningrad on January 5, 1946, to the family of Professor Boris Gerasimovich Ananjeva, a psychologist. In 1968, after graduating from Leningrad University, she entered the graduate school of the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Three years later, she joined the ornithology and herpetology laboratory staff as a junior researcher. In 1993, after defending her doctoral thesis, she became a leading researcher. Since 1996, Ananjeva has served as head of the laboratory of ornithology and herpetology at the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 2006 to 2017, she also served as Deputy Director of Research at the Zoological Institute of the RAS.
Named species
As of 2021, Ananjeva has taken part in the description of 21 reptile species: