Cyprinids of Eurasia

Abstract

The Eurasian landmass is the largest in the world. It encompasses 44.43 m. km2 or 36.7% of land compared to 30.27 m. km2 (20.4%) for Africa and 24.26 m. km2 (16.3%) for North America. The highest point on the globe is found in Eurasia (Everest, 8848 m), as is the lowest (Dead Sea,—400 m). It also has the largest lake (Caspian Sea, 371 000km2) and the deepest (Baikal, 1620 m). The Yangtze River is the third longest after the Nile and the Amazon at 6380km, the Ob’-Irtysh is the fifth at 5410km, the Yellow (Huang He) is sixth at 4672 km, the Amur eighth at 4416 km, the Lena ninth at 4400 km and the Mekong eleventh at 4184 km. The geography of this area is covered in general texts, e.g. the series Ecosystems of the World (ed. D. W. Goodall, Elsevier, Amsterdam). Van der Leeden (1975) summarizes statistics on water resources.