Pallas was a German naturalist and professor of natural history at the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. From 1768-1774 he travelled across Russia on a scientific expedition; a journey which produced important discoveries—most notably of mammoth fossils in the Siberian ice—but also ruined his health. The findings of his expedition were published in his Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs (1771-6)
