THE KARA SEA 

 Table 104* 



241 



* The numbers in parentheses are taken from the work of T. Pergament (1945). 



some individual forms, so characteristic of the southern part of the Sea 

 (Stuxberg, the zoologist of the O. Nordenskjold expedition, drew attention to it 

 as early as 1 886), and of the central parts, with brown mud soils, becomes more 

 and more evident. 



The basic fauna of the Kara Sea consists of the high Arctic endemic fauna 

 peculiar to the epicontinental seas of the Arctic basin. This high Arctic fauna 

 consists of two quite different generic groups : one, typically marine, inhabits 

 the more saline parts ; the other, living in brackish water, is adapted to river 

 mouths and estuaries, and to the inlets of the southern and southeastern parts 

 of the Sea. 



One may add to this high Arctic marine fauna some pan-Arctic forms, i.e. 

 forms thriving in both the Arctic sub-regions — the low Arctic and the high 

 Arctic, and the Arctic-boreal forms, with an even wider distribution, which 

 are common to both the Arctic and the boreal regions. A few forms are dis- 

 tributed even more widely throughout the whole world ocean. 



The following most common forms may be mentioned (G. Gorbunov, 

 1937) among this group of fauna typical of the Kara Sea: the molluscs 

 Portlandia lenticula, P. intermedia, P. fraterna, P. arctica, Leda pernula, 

 Astarte acuticosta, A. crenata, A. borealis, A. montagui, Pecten (Propeamussium) 



