Yuri Mikhailovitch Marusik (born 13 May 1962) is a Russian arachnologist.
Early life and education
Marusik was born in Sarny, a small town in West Ukraine, to Mikhail Adamovich, a school teacher, and Tamara Andreevna, a nurse. His interest in zoology started at an early age, from reading books about animals.
Marusik started his studies at Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) State University in 1979 where he specialized in entomology under the supervision of Victor P. Tyshchenko. After his graduation in 1984, Marusik was accepted into a Ph.D. program in Magadan, working in the lab of Daniil I. Berman. His Ph.D. dissertation (1988) was devoted to fauna, population structure and spatial distribution of spiders in the upper reaches of the Kolyma River, northeastern Siberia.[1][2]
Contributions to arachnology
Marusik has published over 500 scientific papers dealing with taxonomy, systematics, faunistics and the biogeography of spiders and other invertebrates.[3] He has described two subfamilies and over 50 genera and 700 species of spiders,[4][5] several of them named after celebrities: Filistata maguirei and Pritha garfieldi were named after the former Spider-Man actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield,[6] Labialithus lindemanni was named after Till Lindemann, the lead vocalist and lyricist of the band Rammstein,[7] Gorbiscape gorbachevi was named after the Russian and Soviet politician Mikhail Gorbachev,[8] Loureedia phoenixi was named after the actor Joaquin Phoenix,[9] and Loxosceles coheni was named after the singer-songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen.[10]
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