FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 



The Smithsonian Institution Libraries, in cooperation with the National Science 

 Foundation, has sponsored the translation into English of this and hundreds 

 of other scientific and scholarly studies since 1960. The program, funded with 

 Special Foreign Currency under the provisions of Public Law 480, represents 

 an investment in the dissemination of knowledge to which the Smithsonian 

 Institution is dedicated. 



In this volume, the authors review and summarize many aspects of the 

 early life history of the marine bivalve mollusks and echinoderms that are 

 common in the Sea of Japan. Several of the species covered are of commercial 

 value, and the scientific information given here will be very useful in planning 

 successful exploitation and management. Many of these species have a wide 

 distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, and thus the book is of broad regional 

 interest. 



For many readers, this English- language translation presents for the first 

 time a review of Russian research on mollusks and echinoderms that would be 

 otherwise inaccessible. It updates a 1980 book (in Russian) by V.L. Kasyanov, 

 L.A. Medvedeva, Y.M. Yakovlev and S.N. Yakovlev, and it includes relevant 

 literature references up to, and including, the year 1990. The editors have taken 

 great care to ensure that this translation accurately reflects the original text. 

 However, some scientific names and parts of the classification, especially in 

 the Echinodermata section, have been changed to reflect current thinking, and 

 to make the data more readily accessible. 



This work is a significant addition to the literature on embryology and 

 larval development of mollusks and echinoderms, and it should prove to be 

 important and useful to fishery biologists, embryologists and marine biologists. 



DAVID L. PAWSON 



National Museum of Natural History 



Smithsonian Institution 



Washington, D.C. 



