Language: English with Russian summaries
The book is dedicated to the extremly rich and variable marine costal fauna of Southern Vietnam. Most of the studies were conducted in Nhatrang Bay. The first volume contains 8 chapters, dedicated to different groups of marine invertebrates: scleractinian corals, sipunculids, barnacles, mantis shrimps, pontoniine shrimps, crabs of the families Domeciidae, Trapeziidae, Tetraliidae, Xanthidae (Cymoinae), Calappidae, and sponges. As a result of processing of the collections sampled from 1985 to 2006, 441 species of marine invertebrates were found. Among them one is new for science, 82 species were recorded for the first time in Vietnam, and 128 species for the first time in Nhatrang Bay. For each species the data on occurence, distribution, synonymy, and for many species diagnoses or descriptions are provided. The book contains 250 original colored photographs of live animals, made in natural conditions, aquaria, or immediately after collection.