Lake Baikal is a rift lake located in Russia situated in southern Siberia between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and Buryatia to the southeast.
The Baikal seal, Lake Baikal seal or nerpa, is a species of earless seal endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. Like the Caspian seal, it is related to the Arctic ringed seal. The Baikal seal is one of the smallest true seals and the only exclusively freshwater pinniped species; other freshwater seals are simply subpopulations, or subspecies of species that live mostly in marine environments.
The Abyssocottidae are a family of fishes in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. They are known commonly as the deep-water sculpins. The entire family is endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Rasbora is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are native to freshwater habitats in South and Southeast Asia, as well as southeast China. A single species, R. gerlachi, is only known from an old specimen that reputedly originated from Africa (Cameroon), but this locality is considered doubtful. They are small, up to 17 cm (6.7 in) long, although most species do not surpass 10 cm (4 in) and many have a dark horizontal stripe.
River stingrays or freshwater stingrays are Neotropical freshwater fishes of the family Potamotrygonidae in the order Myliobatiformes, one of the four orders of batoids, cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are found in rivers in tropical and subtropical South America. A single marine genus, Styracura, of the tropical West Atlantic and East Pacific are also part of Potamotrygonidae. They are generally brownish, greyish or black, often with a mottled, speckled or spotted pattern, have disc widths ranging from 31 to 200 centimetres (1.0–6.6 ft) and venomous tail stingers. River stingrays feed on a wide range of smaller animals and the females give birth to live young. There are more than 35 species in five genera.
Comephorus, known as the golomyankas or Baikal oilfish, are a genus comprising two species of peculiar, sculpin fishes endemic to Lake Baikal in Russia. Comephorus is the only genus in the family Comephoridae. Golomyankas are pelagic fishes which make the main food source of the Baikal seal.
Suberites domuncula is a species of sea sponge belonging to the family Suberitidae.
Epischurella baikalensis is a species of copepod in family Temoridae. It is endemic to Lake Baikal, being the dominant zooplankton species there: 80%–90% of total biomass. It measures 1.5–2 mm (0.06–0.08 in).
Halichondria is a genus of sea sponges belonging to the family Halichondriidae. These are massive, amorphous sponges with clearly separated inner and outer skeletons consisting of bundles of spicules arranged in a seemingly random pattern.
Paludomidae, common name paludomids, is a family of freshwater snails, gastropod molluscs in the clade Sorbeoconcha.
Spicules are structural elements found in most sponges. Sponge spicules are made of calcium carbonate or silica. Large spicules visible to the naked eye are referred to as megascleres, while smaller, microscopic ones are termed microscleres. The meshing of many spicules serves as the sponge's skeleton and thus it provides structural support and potentially defense against predators. The composition, size, and shape of spicules are major characters in sponge systematics and taxonomy.
Suberites is a genus of sea sponges in the family Suberitidae. Sponges, known scientifically as Porifera, are the oldest metazoans and are used to elucidate the basics of multicellular evolution. These living fossils are ideal for studying the principal features of metazoans, such as extracellular matrix interactions, signal-receptor systems, nervous or sensory systems, and primitive immune systems. Thus, sponges are useful tools with which to study early animal evolution. They appeared approximately 580 million years ago.
Monorhaphis is a monotypic genus of siliceous deep sea Hexactinellid sponges. The single species is the type species Monorhaphis chuni, a sponge known for creating a single giant basal spicule (G.B.S.) to anchor the sponge in the sediments. The species was described by Franz Eilhard Schulze in 1904 from specimens collected by the German Deep Sea Expedition in 1898-1899. Monorhaphis is also the only genus in the monotypic family Monorhaphididae.
Lubomirskia baikalensis is a freshwater species of sponge that is endemic to Lake Baikal, Russia. It is commonly called the Lake Baikal sponge and it is the most abundant sponge in the lake, but all the approximately 15 species of sponges in the family Lubomirskiidae are restricted to Baikal.
Girardia is a genus of freshwater planarians belonging to the family Dugesiidae.
Anheteromeyenia is a genus of freshwater sponge. It has been recorded in the Nearctic, the Neotropics. This taxon was initially a subgenus of Heteromeyenia when K. Schöder circumscribed it in 1927, but W. M. de Laubenfels made it a genus in its own right in 1936.
Silicateins are enzymes which catalyse the formation of biosilica from monomeric silicon compounds extracted from the natural environment. Environmental silicates are absorbed by specific biota, including diatoms, radiolaria, silicoflagellates, and siliceous sponges; silicateins have so far only been found in sponges. Silicateins are homologous to the cysteine protease cathepsin.
Lubomirskia is a genus of sponges belonging to the family Lubomirskiidae.
