Leo Semenovich Berg and the biology of Acipenseriformes: a dedication

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Leo Semenovich Berg (1876-1950), a Russian ichthyologist and geographer. In the foreword to the English translation of Berg's remarkable treatise, 'Nomogenesis or evolution according to law', Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote: 'Berg was one of the outstanding intellects among Russian scientists. The breadth of his interests and the depth as well as the amplitude of his scholarship were remarkable. He had the reputation of being a 'walking library', because of the amount of information he could produce from his memory' (Dobzhansky 1969, p. xi). Berg was prolific, publishing 217 papers and monographs on ichthyology, 30 papers on general zoology and biology, 20 papers on paleontology, 32 papers on zoogeoégraphy, 320 papers and monographs on geography, geology, and ethnography, as well as 290 biographies, obituaries, and popular articles (Berg 1955, Sokolov 1955).[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]