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Professor Dr Nikolai Spassov, director of the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia. Photo: (c) N. Spassov
Professor Dr Nikolai Spassov, director of the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia. Photo: (c) N. Spassov

Nikolai Spassov

(Professor Dr)
phone: (+359 2) 980 83 91; (+359 2) 988 51 15 (ext. 728); e-mail:

Born: 7 April 1951, Sofia.
Education: Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’, Faculty of Biology (1974).
Speciality: vertebrate zoology.
Palaeontology and Mineralogy Department

Research interests


More than 170 scientific papers in the field of palaeontology, taxonomy and morphology of large mammals (Macromammalia), evolution of the terrestrial megafaunas, archaeozoology, evolution of the behaviour of vertebrates, ecology of carnivores, conservation of vertebrates.

Current projects


2008—2009. Coordinación de estudios sobre las primeras ocupaciones humanas en Eurasia: Intercambios científicos Bulgaria-España Ministerio de Education Y Ciencia. España. Leading institution: CENIEH, Burgos.
Elaboration of the second edition of the Red data Book of Bulgaria, vol. ‘Animals’ (In press). A project of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences supported by the Ministry of the Environment.
2008 and continues: Search for the Earliest Human Prehistory: Paleontological Investigations in the Locality of the Last Prehuman Hominoids in Europe (Azmaka near Chirpan, Bulgaria, Turolian). Granted by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Additional grants by L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Fyssen Foundation and the University of Tübingen.
From 2008 and continues: Member of the working team for the creation of the Natinal Action plan for the wolf in Bulgaria. Project of Balkani Society supported by the Ministry of the Environment.
From 2008 and continues: Team leader of the large mammals group in the project: Development of the Natura 2000 Network in Bulgaria. A project of the Bularian Academy of Sciences, supported by the Ministry of the Environment.
From 2010: Molecular analysis of ancient dogs: A critical re-assessment of their ancestry and their co-evolution with humans. Leading institution: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

Selected publications


Spassov, N. 1979. Sexual selection and the evolution of horn-like structures of Ceratopsian dinosaurs. — Palaeontology, Stratigraphy, litology, 11: 37—48.

Spassov N., Spiridonov, G. 1993. Vormela peregusna Gueld., 1770 — Tigeriltiss. In: Handbuch der Saugetiere Europas. Aula Verlag GmbH, Wiesbaden. Band 5/II (Carnivora).

Spassov, N., Lange-Badre, B. 1995. Asiavorator altidens gen et sp. nov., un mammifere carnivore nouveau de l’Oligocene superieur de Mongolie. — Annales de Paleontologie, 81 (3): 109—123.

Spassov, N., Raychev, D. 1997. Late Wurm Panthera pardus remains from Bulgaria: the European fossil leopards and the question of the probable species survival until the Holocene on the Balkans. — Historia naturalis bulgarica, 7: 109—113.

Spassov, N., Iliev, N. 1998. The late pleistocene and holocene horses of East Europe and the polyphylethic origin of the domestic horse. In: Stefanovich, M., Todorova, H., Hauptmann, H. (Eds). James H. Gaul in memoriam. The James Harvey Gaul Fondation, Sofia, 371—390.

Spassov, N. 2002. The Turolian Megafauna of West Bulgaria and the character of the Late Miocene ‘Pikermian biome’. — Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana, 41(1): 69—81.

Spassov, N. 2003. The Plio-Pleistocene vertebrate fauna in South-East ern Europe and the megafaunal migratory waves from the east to Europe. — Revue de Paleobiologie. Geneve, 22 (1): 197—229.

Koufos G., N. Spassov and D. Kovatchev. 2003. Study of Mesopithecus (Primates, Cercopithecoidea) from the Late Miocene of Bulgaria. — Palaeontographica, A, 269 (1—3): 39—91.

Spassov N. 2003. The Brown Bear in the southern Balkans. In: Krystufek, B., B. Flajsman, Huw Griffiths (Eds). Chapter 9. Living with Bears, A large European carnivore in a shrinking world. Ekoforum, Ljubljana, pp. 229—244.

Spassov, N., D. Geraads 2004. Tragoportax Pilgrim and Miotragocerus Stromer (Mammalia, Bovidae) from the Turolian of Hadjidimovo, Bulgaria , and a revision of the Late Miocene Mediterranean Boselaphini. — Geodiversitas, 26 (2): 339—370.

Spassov N., Tz. Tzankov, D. Geraads 2006. Late Neogene stratigraphy, biochronology, faunal diversity and environments of South-West Bulgaria (Struma river valley). — Geodiversitas, 28 (3): 477—498.

Spassov N., D. Geraads. 2007. Dolichopithecus balcanicus sp. nov., a new Colobinae (Primates, Cercopithecidae) from the Early Pliocene of South-eastern Europe, with a discussion on the taxonomy of the genus. — Journal of Human Evolution, 52: 434—442.

Geraads, D., N. Spassov. 2009. Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia) from the late Miocene of Bulgaria. — Palaeontographica, A, 287 (4—6): 99—122 [PDF].

Spassov N. 2009. The Southwesternmost Distribution of the Saiga in the Holocene of Europe: A Saiga Tatarica Find From an Archaeological Site in Bulgaria. In: Gatsov I. & J.-L. Guadelli (eds.) Saxa loquuntur. Volume in honour of the 65th anniversary of Nikolai Sirakov. Avalon publisher. Sofia, pp. 317—322 [PDF].

Kahlke, R.-D., N. Garcia, D. Kostopoulos, F. Lacombat, A. Lister, P. Mazza, N. Spassov, V. Titov (in press). Western Palaearctic palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene inferred from large mammal communities, and implications for hominin dispersal in Europe. In: J. Carrion, J. Rose and C. Stringer (eds.) — Ecological scenarios for human evolution during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene in the western Palaearctic. Special Issue of Quaternary Science Reviews, 2010 [PDF].


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