Geographic composition

Completing of ichthyological collections of the Museum followed two basic principles from the very beginning. From one side, it was and was necessary to gather representative samples of as many species as possible from as many regions of Russia as possible. Another task was and is to gather reference samples of principal taxa the World fish fauna.

Fresh water fish fauna of Russia and other FSU countries is most complete, lacking are only few most rare species known by single specimens or with very narrow distribution. However, different regions are represented not quite evenly.

As far as European part of Russia is concerned, collections of its northern regions are pretty complete, while those of northwestern and southwestern parts are more scanty and quite old. Pretty good are collections from the Volga River basin.

Collections from lakes and rivers of Middle Asia are among most complete, including some very rare species. Faunas of the greater rivers of Siberia are also represented by good samples, and Cottoidei from Baikal are numerous. Salmonids from Kamtchatka and Sakhalin are of worthy being mentioned here. Of special interest are numerous samples of many fish species from Amur River.

Regard the sea faunas, most complete are those from Black, Azov, and White seas. The Mediterranean fishes are best represented from its eastern part, while those from the Baltic are nearly lacking.

Among African fishes, if XIX century acquisitions are not taken into account, most complete and interesting are those collected in Ethiopia.

Continental Asian fishes represented here are those from fresh waters of Mongolia and northern China, while most rich Indian and Indo-Chinese fauna is represented by few dozens species only.

About 100 fish species represent North America, including several interesting endemics. South American fauna was poorly represented until most recent times, but pretty good samples were obtained from Amazonia due to M.V. Mina and Yu.S. Reshetnikov.

Representation of the fish fauna of the World Ocean became quite extensive during last decades because of active development of marine fishery in Soviet Union and Russia and scientific marine expeditions related to it.

Atlantic ocean is represented mainly by a sample from West African Shelf which includes about 250 species, as well as by fewer number of deep water fishes. There is a noticeable sample from Newfoundland Bank off North American Atlantic coast. Caribbean Basin and Patagonian Shelf can also be mentioned here due to samples that came to the Museum during last decades.

Ichthyofauna of Indian Ocean is most diversely represented both taxonomically and geographically. There are extensive samples shores off Eastern Africa and SW Asia, of Great Australian Bight, and Tasmania. Of great importance are samples from underwater ridges of both eastern and western sectors of Indian Ocean that are poorly studied.

The Pacific region is also represented quite well. There are samples from Indo-Malay Archipelago, as well from Timor and Coral seas. Collections from Oceania can also been mentioned, especially from Tonga. Those from Tonkin Bay serve as a good addition to Japanese and South Chinese Sea to illustrate some latitudinal gradients in faunal composition. Northern sector of Pacific is represented by samples from Okhotsk and Bering seas and from the Gulf of Alaska. There is also a noticeable sample from shelves of Peru and Chili.