The Paleontological museum was founded by Professor Aleksandr Inostrantsev as the part of his Geological cabinet in the Twelve Colleges building. History of the museum dates back to 1868 when the University bought a unique paleontological collection of Professor Carl von Eichwald to his fundamental monograph "Lethaea rossica, ou, Paléontologie de la Russie". The second section of the museum, Paleontological cabinet, was founded in 1919 by Professor Mikhail Yanishevsky with the Department of Paleontology (29 16th Line of Vasilievsky Island). At the present time, it is a training platform of the Department of Sedimentary Geology at St Petersburg University.
Today, the united scientific palaeontological collection of St Petersburg University comprises about 55,000 samples, and is published under the acronym PMSPU.