This website is based on the third volume of the report "Biota of the Russian waters of the Sea of Japan" and deals with brachiopod invertebrates (“lampshells”), phylum Brachiopoda.The Identification guideincludes 15 species of brachiopods found in the Russian waters of the Sea of Japan. Brachiopods are known primarily through the diverse and numerous fossil forms, they include no less than 10,000 species, which are combined in eight classes. Recent brachiopods, although represented by slightly more than 300 species of the two classes, play an important role in the benthic communities of the World Ocean. For example, at the continental slope in the Sea of Japan, population density of the brachiopod Laqueus vancouveriensis reaches 3,000 ind./m2. The section on brachiopods is written for this volume by Dr. Olga N. Zezina (P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow), the world's leading expert on modern brachiopods. Thanks to her works, the brachiopod fauna of the seas of Russia is studied quite well. Unfortunately, the only identification guide on brachiopods of the seas of Russia (Zezina, 1997) was issued in a very small edition and remained unknown to a majority of the far-eastern hydrobiologists. Therefore, this publication of the regional identification guide is really an important event.
Given the importance of this identification guide for researchers in Japan, Korea, China and other countries, both sections are published in two languages, Russian and English.