Russian deep-sea investigations of Antarctic fauna

A review of the Russian deep-sea investigation of Antarctic fauna beginning from the first scientific collection of Soviet whaling fleet expeditions 1946–1952 is presented. The paper deals with the following expeditions, their main tasks and results. These expeditions include three cruises of research vessel (R.V.) Ob in the Indian sector of the Antarctic and in the Southern Pacific (1955–1958); 11 cruises of the R.V. Akademik Kurchatov in the southern Atlantic (November–December 1971); 16 cruises of the R.V. Dmitriy Mendeleev in the Australia–New Zealand area and adjacent water of the Antarctic (December 1975–March 1976); 43 cruises of the R.V. Akademik Kurchatov in the southern Atlantic (October 1985–February 1986); and 43 cruises of the R.V. Dmitriy Mendeleev in the Atlantic sector of the South Ocean (January–May 1989). A list of the main publications on the benthic taxa collected during these expeditions with data of their distribution is presented. The results of Russian explorations of the Antarctic fauna are presented as theoretical conclusions in the following topics: (1) Vertical zonation in the distribution of the Antarctic deep-sea fauna; (2) Biogeographic division of the abyssal and hadal zones; (3) Origin of the Antarctic deep-sea fauna; (4) Distributional pathways of the Antarctic abyssal fauna through the World Ocean.