Ophiuroidea collections of the Zoological Institute Russian Academy of Sciences

A total of 309 species and subspecies of Ophiuridae (brittle stars) are available in the Marine Research Laboratory of the Zoological Institute RAS collection mainly from cold and temperate waters of the World Ocean (polar and middle latitude regions). Collection is divided into systematic and non identified parts. The systematic part of the collection is stored in taxonomycal order (according to family, genus and species), while non identified part — according to expeditions. Systematic collection consists of 9591 lots (Lot in this case — a part of hydrobiological sample with specimens of a certain ophiuroid species. One lot may contain several hundreds of specimens.) whereas non identified part — of more than 500 lots. All materials are divided into alcoholic and dry. As a rule, alcoholic collections are stored in small trays in cabinets, while dry — above them in entresols. In the Echinoderms Department along with the catalogue of type specimens two more catalogues are managed: inventory for numbering all lots and systematic, where lots with the same species are numbered. During the reidentification of the material numbers in systematic catalogue are changed, while inventory numbers remain permanent. Several ophiuroid specimens where obtained before 1899. The main collection originates from the materials of the famous first Russian research vessel “Andrey Pervozvannyi” (1899). Since that time many regions of the World Ocean were sampled and lot of materials were collected by Zoological Institute researchers. Some of these data already stored in a database are made available through this online facility. We constantly add new data and correct information in records. These data have not only scientific and historical aspects [7]. Accumulation of monitoring collections over a broad period of time [6] made it possible to track changes in marine ecosystems under climatic, hydrologic and anthropogenic influence [1–3]. Thus, on the basis of ophiurid collections from the Barents Sea changes in species areas forced by climatic influence were analyzed [4, 5]. Digitizing of research collections of the Zoological Institute is performed within the framework of RFBR №15-29-02457 (competition of oriented basic research on important interdisciplinary themes 2015) «The collections of the Zoological Institute as an important tool and information basis of fundamental biological research» (project leader Dr. Ananjeva N.B.).