 In 1962, Darevsky became Junior Researcher at the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences; in 1967, he defended his Doktor of sciences thesis "The Rock Lizards of the Caucasus"; and in 1976, he became the Head of Laboratory of Ornithology and Herpetology, which he led for the next twenty years.Darevsky made many discoveries in evolutionary biology.He was the first to discover parthenogenesis and polyploidy in higher vertebrates and showed their importance for speciation.