He examined bird distributions in the light of climatic history and is considered a pioneer of paleornithology.
While at school he collected plants and made a herbarium and joined a group of Saratov naturalists at the age of seventeen.
He went to Kazan University, and attended the meeting of the All-Russian Union of Naturalists in 1901 at St. Petersburg.
In 1905 he moved to work at the Central Siberian Regional Museum as a curator.
In 1934-1937 he explored the Caspian Sea region and Transcaucasia in collaboration with Elizabeth Kozlova.