Peter Simon, Pallas (1741-1811) - a famous German and Russian scientist encyclopedist, naturalist, geographer and traveler XVIII-XIX centuries. Famous scientific expeditions in the territory of Russia in the second half of XVIII century. Made a significant contribution to the world and Russian science - biology, geography, geology, philology and ethnography.

   Born in Berlin on September 22, 1741 a German doctor in the family of Simon Pallas (1694-1770), professor of anatomy and the chief surgeon of Berlin Medico-Surgical Board. Mother - Susanna Lienard - comes from the old Protestant families of emigrants of French town of Metz. Do Pallas was the older brother and sister. This was the reign of an enlightened monarch Frederick II, reorganized Prussian Academy of Sciences.

   Father Peter Simon wanted a son went to his footsteps, but the passion for science. Being trained by private teachers in the 13 years he knew perfect English, French, Latin and Greek languages, and began to attend lectures at Berlin Medico-Surgical College of, where he studied anatomy, physiology, obstetrics, surgery and, along with botany and zoology.

   Continue their study in Gallic (1758-1759) and Gottingen (1759-1760) university course in pedagogy, philosophy, mining, zoology, botany (by Carla Lynne system), agriculture, mathematics and physics. In 1760 moved to University of Leiden, where in 19 years, a doctorate in medicine for intestinal helminthic - lat. De infestis veventibus intra viventia ( "On the pests living inside organisms"). Then tidy estestvennoistoricheskie collections in Leiden, and visited England to study the botanical and zoological collections. This published work "Elenchus zoophytorum" (The Hague, 1766) and "Miscellanea zoologica" (The Hague, 1766) (Lat.), incorporating the latest of several new species for the time of vertebrate animals. In those years, the young naturalist dream to travel to South Africa and South and Southeast Asia, but at the insistence of his father not to implement these plans. Pallas is back in Berlin, where he did "Spicilegia zoologica".

   In the first publications of recognized scientific community, Pallas made a significant change in the classification linneevskuyu worms. Pallas also declined from the "ladder beings" (an idea which goes back to Aristotle, but was particularly prevalent among naturalists in the XVIII century), expressed the idea of the historical development of the organic world, and have suggested that graphically consistent communication of major taxonomic groups of organisms in the form of genealogical tree with branches. His new system of classification of animals praised Georges Cuvier. Subsequently, with the idea of evolution in biology Pallas scheme became the basis of systematics. For those working scientist, was elected in 1764 a member of the London Royal Society and Academy in Rome, and in December 1766 - a full member and professor of natural history of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences.