The Laboratory of Paleozoology, responding to the directions of modern international priorities, continues basic research related to the study of morphology, systematics and evolution of various groups of vertebrates, the study of the diversity of the organic world, elucidation of the change of groups over time and phylogeny of major branches.
The strategic goal of research activities of the Laboratory of Paleozoology is the introduction of the achieved results in stratigraphy on the basis of basic research for the needs of practical geology in Kazakhstan. Prospectivity of the carried out researches is obvious, as the bowels of the Kazakhstani earth for paleontological discoveries are practically inexhaustible. It is also necessary to understand that the locations with paleontological organics are as exhaustible as mineral deposits. They are not reproducible! Collection materials collected from these locations are the national property of each country and are strictly accounted for.
At the Institute of Zoology, on the initiative of the Laboratory, the Museum of Nature was established. The main purpose of the museum is to promote the achievements of zoological science in Kazakhstan and the ideas of nature conservation. More than 60 years the Museum is open for a wide range of visitors: schoolchildren, students, tourists from near and far abroad; numerous participants of various conferences and scientific forums and city inhabitants. Excursions are conducted in the museum; schoolchildren and students at the museum broaden their horizons on many aspects of biological science in addition to their curricula.
Thanks to the research of Kazakh and Soviet scientists discovered more than 900 locations with the remains of ancient animals and 100 of them in the last 20 years (locations of vertebrates P.A. Tleuberdina). Thanks to the study of mined scientific materials have been made dozens of scientific discoveries which have brought the world fame to many locations in Kazakhstan. To date, about a thousand species of fossil vertebrates and almost the same number of plants are known in Kazakhstan. But this is far from complete information about the species diversity of fauna of past epochs accumulated to the present time and which are still largely hidden in the depths of the Kazakhstan earth.
Thanks to the activities of paleontologists, a number of locations have been declared paleontological monuments of nature: “Goose flight” in Pavlodar Priirtyshye; the protected area “Aulie” in the Karatau mountains, as part of the Aksu-Jabagly reserve; “Koshkurgan” near Turkestan.