Invertebrates Books

This book is amazing! The photos are mind-blowingly detailed and beautiful. Aliens do live on this planet--they are deep under the ocean.

Unbelievable pictures. I never thought that such creatures even existed. The image and print quality are excellent and the concept itself is breathtaking.

I read this book from cover to cover and was completely enraptured by the images and descriptions of the various species. What incredible beauty lies in our ocean depths! I became fascinated with this stuff after watching one of the Blue Planet episodes. I also bought a copy and sent it to my brother. What an awesome book!

Words really can't describe this book. It's just page after page of astonishing photos of creatures from the deep sea. All the photos are of the highest technical excellence, and the creatures displayed seem like they must be from another planet. The most exotic land animals you've ever seen come off as quite mundane in comparison to what you'll see in The Deep.

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Where would you find these?

(1) Gorgon's head
(2) Fangtooth
(3) Pigbutt worm
(4) Black medusa
(5) Radiolarians

Possible answers: In outer space? On the Earth's surface? In a horror movie? On a farm? In an electronics store?

Correct answer: these are the names of creatures found in the abyss. (Technically, the abyss is a particular zone of the oceans extending 3000 to 6000 meters in depth. This term is also used to designate the deep oceans overall.)

You will find photographs of the five creatures indicated above and the pictures of many more deep ocean creatures in this stunningly beautiful book by Claire Nouvian, a journalist, producer, and film director who has travelled the world for more than a decade, filming wildlife for French and international television.

The book has photographs with captions (its main feature) interweaved with text. The contents of the book is divided into two parts:

(I) Life in the water column (meaning life in the water above the seafloor)
(II) Life at the bottom (meaning life on the seafloor or just above it).

The colour photographs are, in a word--astonishing. All the creatures (that look like they're not of this planet) imaged are marvels of evolution and adaptation. Rare and unidentified abyss-dwellers are even photographed.

Each photograph has a caption made up of several pieces of information: (1) the abyss-dweller's scientific name (2) its descriptive name (not all photographs have this) (3) its size (4) the depth at which it's found and (5) known information about the creature. As an example, I will give an actual example of such a caption for the creature found on the book's jacket cover (displayed above by Amazon):

(1) Teuthowenia pellucida
(2) Googly-eyed glass squid
(3) SIZE 20 centimeters
(4) DEPTH larvae and juveniles 0-900 meters, adults 1600-2500 meters
(5) Three sentences of known information about this abyss-dweller.

The number of pictures in this book is almost 210.

In the copy of the book I have, at the beginning the reader is alerted that there are "four computer-generated illustrations." When these illustrations are actually encountered, the caption for these illustrations states "computer-generated image."

The text that's interweaved with the photographs consists mainly of two-page essays that begins most chapters, factoids, and quotations.

There are a total of fifteen succinct essays indicated in the table of contents. Each is written by a researcher at a prominent research facility. Examples of such facilities include the USA's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, France's French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

There is also an excellent five page introductory essay (not indicated in the table of contents). Be sure to carefully read this so as to orient yourself to the rest of the book.

Quotations from prominent people permeate throughout. One of my favourites was uttered by Jacques Cousteau in 1976:

"Under the sea, it seems my every gaze is as stolen from some forbidden world; and it triggers an emotional shock that never flags, no matter how many times I dive."

Revealing factoids also abound throughout the book. Here's an interesting fact:

At 150 meters depth, 99% of sunlight has been absorbed by water. Below 1000 meters, it's total, inky blackness for all.

(It is from this factoid that I came up with the title of this review.)

Based on the photographs and text, this book deserves a solid 5-STAR RATING.

Unfortunately, there are some problems with the book. The majority are minor (for example, the first two pictures found at the very beginning of this book have their captions on the credits page--the very last page), but the major problems primarily deal with the table of contents and index. (Note also that the credits page is not indicated in the table of contents.)

The table of contents is incomplete. For example, why isn't the introductory essay's (see above) title not mentioned in the table of contents? This introductory essay has four sub-sections. Why weren't these sub-section titles not mentioned? I feel that a ground-breaking book of this type should have a detailed table of contents.

The index is also incomplete. All it does is give the scientific names of the known species in this book and what page to find them on. That's it!! Why wasn't, for example, all the important information found in the fifteen chapter essays and the introductory essay appropriately indexed? Again, a grounding-breaking book of this type should have, I feel, a detailed index.

What is Nouvian's function with respect to this book? If you look at the book's cover, it seems that she is the author. She is NOT. If you look at the credits page, she is in charge of "photographic research." Amazon thinks she is the editor, but according to the credits page, she is not. Very confusing.

Based on these major and minor problems, this book should perhaps be given a 3-STAR RATING.

Finally, my final rating is an average of the two RATINGS given above.

In conclusion, this is a mesmerizing book giving us a glimpse into an alien world--the abyss.

(published 2007; preface; introduction; 20 chapters; main narrative 245 pages; appendix; glossary; index; bibliography; acknowledgements; credits)

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If you're thinking of starting a marine aquarium or already have one this book is for you. Not only do the authors describe a plethora of invertebrates but there's a chapter on refugiums that is the most informative source on the subject that I've seen up to this point.

This book is awesome. Covers everything from basic waterflow and setup through animal interactions and suggestions. Lots to be learned from both novice and experienced.

I've been reading information penned by Mr. Calfo and Mr. Fenner online and was hoping this book would reflect the same wealth of knowledge and sense of humor I've come to expect. I wasn't dissapointed. If you're looking for information on selection, compatibility and geographical origin of many invertabrates for the reef aquarium this is the book to buy. As an added bonus there is a chapter dedicated to refugiums.

I have an extensive library of reef aquarium books, including all Sprung & Delbeek series. This book is beyond doubt the very best guide to reef inverts. It does not cover corals, anemones or, of course, fish. There will be future volumes for those topics. The authors provide extremely thorough coverage of the topic in an entertaining writing style. I anxiously await future volumes in this series. Highest recommendation.

I'm on a tight budget, so usually try to get a book through the library rather than buying, if possible. This one was not available, so I took a chance buying it. I'm soooo glad I did. There's an enormous amount of information. I will be referencing this book for years. I'm interested in raising macroalgae and dwarf seahorses, and compatible invertebrates. Everything is geared toward corals nowadays and live rock, neither of which are necessarily safe for 1 inch seahorses. I was thrilled to find a large section on macroalgae in this book. The focus is on using them for refugiums, but I easily adapted the techniques, including a deep sand bed, to my 2.5 gallon dwarf seahorse tanks. Start here for the easiest way to get incredible water quality in your tanks. The live deep sand bed with macroalgae technique in this book, keeps the approx 1.5 gallons of water in my tanks ammonia-free. Amazing. Also, explains which macroalgae go "sexual," so you can avoid purchasing the ones that may foul the tank (and which are often promoted and sold as the best to buy!). Thanks so much to Anthony Calfo & Bob Fenner - and for their website, too ([...]).

This book came in a timely fashion and was very well kept. Great book to read when looking for the answers to questions you may have. Awesome purchase.

This series is well worth every penny. You can find a lot of books for less but that is what you are getting. Save yourself some money and get the series that thoroughly do cover every aspect of the hobby in amazing detail. This series is amazing and you will love it. It is a bit scientific but it does not leave anything out.

New hobbyist should read this book for advice, then read it again in 6 months.

An exceptional book on the subject. It is comprehensive but I would not say not complete as no book on this subject could be. Still I believe this book to be the best work compiled in book form. Described by many as "the Bible" on the subject it indeed may be but it is not dogmatic as it offers several options and methods and leaves it for the aquarist to use.
(Note: This volume covers stony corals and not soft corals).
When I started keeping marine aquaria keeping back in 1970 one almost had to employ the skills of a chemist. In those days most people in the hobby  thought it nearly impossible to care for many of the species of coral now commonly kept. It was only through the encouragement of a local public aquarium (the John G. Shedd Aquarium) whereas a high school student I was able to participate in collecting trips that I got the encouragement to experiment. I started out with Robert Straughan's books back in 1970 which both helped to get me in trouble and helped me grow as an aquarist. both In those days there was an awful lot of trial and error. Later in the late 70's I helped to pioneer some techniques when I worked for the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. In those days in San Francisco I worked for one of the largest marine fish wholesalers in the world. We had a lot of shipments that went off to Germany and now I wonder if some of the species that passed through my hands ended up in the hands of the authors. Somewhat of a revolution went of in the hoby in the 1980 thanks in part to the efforts of the Germans. Thankfully the hobby is now much more of a discipline and a lot more humane. It is quite amazing how far the hobby has come. I am sure the hobby will continue to evolve. This is a pricey book but it is a pricey hobby and this book is one of the best, if not the best, books on the subject available. The best place to start with the hobby is a book like this one.

The good?

This book is truly a comprehensive piece covering probably more than you want to know at times. For example, it explains the chemical reactions that occur during calcification of corals and why additions are necessary.

After reading many other references, I must say I am very happy I purchased this volume. Contained in these pages are insights you won't find anywhere else.

The book clearly explains the setup and maintenance procedures required to be successful in stony coral reef keeping.

The bad?

My main gripe is trivial. Guys, how about a larger font size and pictures? I had to do a lot of squinting.

It could do with a minor revision of some references that are dated (such as collection of live rock from Florida) as the original was 1994, but make no mistake that all information is relevant.

In summary...

Obviously at this price it is unfortunately out of reach of the casual hobbyist, which is a shame. However, one could buy this book instead of various "reference manuals" which might be the same at the end of the day.

Buy it if you can afford it.

I also highly recommend Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals book.

As others have already reviewed, I am a fly fisherman who purchased this book to get a better understanding of freshwater invertebrates other than mayfly and caddis species. (For a highly detailed description of mayflies and caddis for the fly-fisherman, I would recommend the titles "Nymphs, volumes I and II".)

This guide is well-written and not too difficult to follow, even for the beginner. There is a focus on stream ecology and some tips on how to collect and identify various species. Be clear - the focus of this book is not specifically on fly-fishing, but more of a biological guide to aquatic invertebrates.

For a beginner, this book is a great place to start, but is also a nice reference for those with a little more experience. The color drawings are detailed enough to help determine the differences in various species. All in all - Excellent Book.

This books is easy to comprehend, and the plates are well defined. Extremely useful for ID'ing aquatic creatures.

My teaching partner and I will use this in our Freshwater Ecology class at the secondary level. It is a great basic guide that will be used as a reference tool and identification resource at an introductory level. Excellent for the money.

This book contains easy to understand pictographs for beginners, plus distinguishing characteristics for experienced entomologists. A major plus to any and every watershed association out there, and every limnology, water pollution biology, fisheries, etc. class offered at the collegiate level.

A definate must have for nymph fishermen as well!

Well done for a price that doesn't take a bite out of the pocketbook!

This book is great for beginners or someone who wants to brush up on invertebrates. The descriptions are wonderful, as are the pictures. Highly recommended!

Excellent choice of subjects (small living creatures) and excellent photography. The editing, printing, and text are very good. Makes an interesting and attractive coffee table book that becomes a content book when you pick it up. And, a reasonable price. Highly recommended.

Dr. Naskrecki's photography and the reproduction of it has created a book full of rare jewels! He is an entomologist with an eye for beauty and humor...all in the persuit of science. This book should be shared with children that they may learn what magic can be found behind a leaf or under a stone. His writing is concise and informative. This book is for everyone who appreciates what we have been given on this planet!

I bought one for my nephew's birthday. After looking at it, I had to buy another for a different nephew. The photos are MAGNIFICENT!!! Very enjoyable.

I want to join all other reviewers in praising this book as one of the most beautiful books on animals, period! Simply put, this book defines the word "magnificence". A must have for all nature lovers. Get this book along and "Rainforest" by Thomas Marent and you'll be amazed of the wonderfull creatures that inhabit this world. This awesome book is well worth the few bucks it costs. Save the rainforests, before it is too late!!!

This book is outstanding... Period! The work that went into this book results in a standard that will be incredibly hard to beat. Even though this is a serious work in natural history I certainly WOULD recommend this as a gift for a younger child, because they would be thrilled with the photographs all by themselves. Fun to read, this book is primarily a book of nature photography. And Oh, what photographs... the book would be worth every penny just for the photos of these small animals. If nothing else have your local library obtain this book.

Since we spend a lot of time in the Indian River Lagoon, this book has become our go to as soon as we get home from a day's boat trip. The pictures depict each creature accurately and the written descriptions clear up any questions about variances in color, shape, etc. The format is clear and concise as is the table of contents. There aren't many resources on creatures of this area so it's wonderful that Paul Humann and Ned Deloach saw the importance of putting together this fabulous guide.

I bought this book for a gift for my husband (and my family) because he is always telling us of all the creatures he sees when he is diving for lobsters when we go to Florida in December. Now we can enjoy the pictures and see what he is talking about. This is the same book that sells for more money at the dive shops. The pictures are wonderful. Glad we were able to find it here!!

This is probably the best reef creature ID book out there for Florida, the Carribean and the Bahamas, but buy the third edition instead. Semi-hard cover.

I bought this item for my trip to the Caribbean. I'm a marine biologist by training, and I loved this book because it gave information above and beyond just identification. It also tells you how likely it was that the critter you saw was the one pictured in the book. Then there are lists of all the species in the back, with space for you to record when and where you saw it. I had so much fun combing this book after snorkeling to identify all the organisms I had seen! What a great investment! I also like this book because it arranges species by their scientific classification. It could have been a bit more thorough, though--i saw plenty of organisms that aren't mentioned in this book at all.

i think its a really good book because it tells you almost every thing you can see in the ocean. I really like it.

The book was in our hands before the predicted day and in excellent conditions. It is the recommended literature to the PhD course of Entomology, in this field.

The illustrations are stunning.

The writing is judicious and comprehensive, but never tedious or stale.

The citations are comprehensive and up-to-date, and the discussion based on them synthesizes the views of naturalists, entomologists, paleontologists, biologists, and systematists, but without ever burying important contemporary controversies.

The authors are active researchers, who somehow found the time to put this gorgeous volume together for the rest of us while pursuing their own fresh interests.

You need not be a professional to read, enjoy, and benefit from this volume. Any intelligent layperson with an abiding interest in science and the deep evo-devo connections between ourselves and this most successful animal group will gain enrichment and goggle at the photos, paintings, charts, and other graphic content. Recent fossil discoveries are particularly well discussed and displayed, but the graphics are superb overall--the illustrations of grasshopper dentition are alone worth the price of admission!

Really, what more could you want?

Any tome of this size and production quality is bound to be pricey. But there are solutions to that--encourage your local public library system to obtain a copy, or indulge in a "guest researcher" membership at your nearest university library, or simply grit your teeth and get a copy now.

Because you know volumes like these don't stay in print forever, and are not the kind that diminish greatly in price over any reasonably near term.

It is difficult to understand how such an extraordinary book can be published for such a good price. The production values for this volume put to shame nearly every other book on evolutionary history I own. It is hard to imagine how the authors secured this level of support for publishing a relatively narrow-interest book. I assume significant grants must have been involved.

I can only hope that future books by different authors on the evolutionary history of different organisms (chordates, molluscs, etc.) will be afforded this level of support.

Evolution of the Insects is not a light read. It could be the textbook for a graduate course in Entomology, but if you are fascinated by insects and you want to use some of your gray cells, this book is for you! The authors present the latest views on insect evolution based on fossil evidence, anatomical studies of modern insects and molecular evidence as well. The images of fossil insects and phylogenetic trees are remarkable. I am enjoying and learning something new on every page.

This book was a textbook for a course on insect fossils I took a few years ago and we read it cover to cover. My fellow classmates and I (all professional entomologists) had mixed reviews of this book. While it undoutedly provides a lot of good information and is a tremendous contribution to the field of insect fossils, it also contains several mistakes and leaves out a lot of important information. For example, the professor for my fossil insect course is one of the world's experts on giant water bug fossils and was appalled to see what was clearly a giant water bug fossil, from a formation in Germany he has studied himself, labeled as a naucorid, a completely different insect. A description of a dryopid beetle fossil on another page said that all stages of dryopids are aquatic when the larvae are terrestrial. My classmates and I found several such errata throughout the book and felt they seriously undermined the reliability of the information it contains. We were also all annoyed by the lack of molecular support for the arguments presented by the authors. While morphological data is certainly important to consider in systematic studies, it is blatently obvious that the authors don't think much of molecular phylogenetic data. This is unfortunate because in several cases, molecular data has cleared up long standing controversies over taxnomic deliniations where morphological data alone could not. It is clear from the text that the authors are more comfortable with the morphological data than molecular (as expected - they're experts on insect fossils), which would be fine if the book was called Insect Paleontology. However, this book is called Evolution of the Insects. Molecular data is a huge part of modern insect systematics and phylogenetics and any book purporting to canvas the subject of insect evolution should take advantage of the entire wealth of knowledge available and report on it all. That said, this book does what few other books does: it contains information on both extant and extinct linages and it covers the groups we know only through fossils as thoroughly as it does the living taxa. For me, that information alone makes this book worth reading, and is the reason I give it 3 stars insted of 2.

First of all, I echo all the positive comments already made by other reviewers.

This book is dangerous, in the best sense!

I am a bookworm and consider this one of my favorite books. (It is also incredibly cheap for the quality, and this is true for the hardcover version as well.) It is nourishing to the soul, a delight to any seashell collector, and has surprised, touched and impressed all the non-collectors I have shown it to. I started collecting seashells a year ago and bought this book back then. It has made me immediately aware of the surprising level of beauty that can be found in well-selected specimens, even among very affordable species. It has done this at least as much as the finer photographs on seashell websites online (e.g. femorale, gastropods, topseashells).

Rarely have I seen a photographer demonstrate their deep love for their subject this directly and this well. I find that a lot of seashells photographs in other publications simply do not come close to the passion, beauty, communication, feeling, inventiveness and art found in each photograph here. (I am a passionate photographer - have been since a young age - and have been trying my hand at taking beautiful close-ups of seashells for the last year. These attempts have only deepened my appreciation of the photographs in this book.)

This book contains an average of about 2 colour photographs for each page, and close to 2000 specimens and at least 500 species/forms (I counted once when sick in bed :-). Many photographs show several specimens and/or species combined fruitfully. Others concentrate on a single shell, sometimes taking up the entire page. All have very well chosen and crafted backgrounds - either lush, saturated colors or various more recognizable themes, none but a few volutes shown with the animal have the usual black background. You will enjoy a selection of the finest examples of the - cheap, affordable and expensive - species and forms the authors, all long-time collectors, deemed among the most beautiful. They bring you super-selected gem specimens from their personal collections and from a number of other personal collections they borrowed from. All this combines to draw you into looking at the shell more carefully, longer and with your aesthetic eye opened up - not something easily done by any means.

The texts contain all kinds of interesting information, some apparently not necessarily known even to very seasoned collectors, as mentioned in other reviews. It is true that there is no detailed index by species, but in this case it doesn't matter too much: if you own a copy you will be looking at it often and will soon start remembering which specimens are included and where. The sections are organized by families.

My only wish, my only suggestion for improvement, honestly, is for James Carmichael to publish a sequel of the same size even now that Leonard Hill, alas, has passed away at a young age. Perhaps not likely but we can dream, no?

So do not hesitate and buy yourself a copy. It would be hard to imagine that you will be dissapointed. Even if you are not a seashell lover or collector but enjoy beauty and enthusiasm.

Do get the hardcover version as this book is tall and wide and heavy. The covers of a softcover copy will certainly start bending and cracking very soon. The difference in price is small and in this case not worth saving on.

Expect to dive into this book often. With, dare I say?, love... And expect to become even more mad about seashells.

The two authors have done an excellent job, not only of selecting truly beautiful shells from all over the world and doing an outstanding job with the photographs, they have also written very informative text for those who are new to shell collecting. The types of shells are representative and nicely organized.

While this may not be the first book you need to identify your beach shell collection if you are a new comer to shell collection you discover shortly to compare your own sheels to these and realize that in fact your own may compare well.

I especially enjoyed the collages of limpets turned on both sides with the wonderful greens and blue greens of quite ordinary Barbados Limpets.

I would recommend it as say a fifth purchase after some good idenfication compendia and shorter books on just starting the hobby, if you are a beginner.

My wife purchased this book for our beach house and we decided to keep a copy for ourselves at home. It has every shell that you could ever dream of. Our kids love the book because they can look up shells that they have found in the book and see what they are called and what use to live inside of them.

It is great for anyone that has a room or bathroom using seashells or an ocean decoration theme.

Very good book!

This book is pure eye candy for shell lovers. The photographs are beautiful and the close ups allow you to see the fine detail of many shells. This book can also be used as a shell identification reference as the photos are clearly annotated with the names of the shells.

This book is not by any means scientific.
This book is not an identification guide.
The species list is obviously very incomplete.
but...
Truly marvelous, large-format photography of only the best of the best GEM specimens. Each with a short description, which is VERY interesting to read - these are some real facts about the shells and not the description of what you can see on the photo. I consider myself an advanced collector, and this book is a real relief after reading some of the more advanced publications on shell collecting. An excellent source for some real-life knowledge. Highly recommended - both for collectors, or just anyone.

Contained in this book are tales of things like leeches, moths, and an assortment of other spineless creatures. Each chapter is devoted to one such creature. Coniff is good writer, easy to read, and engaging. That being said he makes the perfect author to turn rather grim subjects into light reads. So while you're camping out this summer and swatting mosquitos you can read this book and marvel at the sheer amount of mosquito species out there and wonder which one is sucking your blood.

Richard Conniff's writing style is fun and easy to read. And although some of the facts he pours into the book may be gross, it's so interesting you are riveted. I think everyone-science lover or no-needs to read this book. I couldn't put the book down until I was done. Just to give you some extra info on what's in the book-he discusses many invertebrates such as flies, hagfish, moths and tarantulas, devoting a chapter to each invertebrate. He includes his adventures with these creatures along with it. Even the hardened scientist will find something new in this book!

I have no idea why I picked this book up but I am glad I did for I now take the time to look at the invertebrates that scurry climb or swim about me. Sounds interesting huh? Well, it talked about invertebrates in a way so that even the most mindless of people could understand. I actually learned things that I didn't take the time to listen to or care to read about in science class. I used to tell my Dad to kill that ugly-looking arachnid, but now I beg him to spare its little spineless life.

There is more to the world of nature than cuddly koalas, magnificent whales, and beautifully singing birds. Most of the animal kingdom, and much of the biomass on the planet, are invertebrates! Insects, spiders, centipedes, molluscs, crustaceans, echnioderms, worms, all greatly outnumber vertebrates and are absolutely vital to continued life on earth, and all are greatly unappreciated by the average person.

Richard Conniff takes us on a representative tour of several members of the invertebrate world. Though he only scratches the surface, he shows us some of the most fascinating of the "creepy crawlies," creatures that often have few admirers in the media or popular culture. From the fascinating world of flies to the invaluable leech to the hated fire ant to beetles, fleas, and giant squid and beyond, Conniff shows us the astounding world of invertebrates.

Strictly speaking, Conniff includes one vertebrate in the mix, the lowly but extremely unusual hagfish, so it is not only invertebrates. Having said that though this was an excellent book, one well worth reading. Popular science writing at its best.

Conniff's book _Spineless Wonders_ had me fascinated, for the most part. His subject: invertebrates, with about ten different chapters on different creatures, such as leeches, dragonflies, tarantulas, etc. NOT ALL POPULAR INVERTEBRATES ARE COVERED IN THIS BOOK. In fact, if there is not a chapter devoted to your favorite invertebrate, there will be little or no information on that beast. There are many examples. Jellyfish, starfish, bees, crabs, clams, octopuses and lobsters are but a few that Conniff chose not to cover.

If you need detailed information about an invertebrate not covered in this book, or if you need more detail, I advise you to seek out a book on that specific beast. Also, you can look into Robert Barnes' book _Invertebrate Zoology_, but that book...is best used at a public or college library.

On the plus side: there aren't many good books on invertebrates for a general audience, and _Spineless Wonders_ is one of them. Most folks, while they might be able to stomach ten or twenty pages on leeches, don't want an entire book on leeches. In fact, most full length books on leeches, dragonflies, etc. are indeed academic tracts targeted at serious collectors or graduate students and professors.

Conniff's writing is usually lucid and entertaining. He held my attention until the end of each chapter... almost. Still, there isn't much popular writing on invertebrates in general, so _Spineless Wonders_ is well worth a look.

ken32

"The Fossils of the Burgess Shale" written by Derek E.G. Briggs, Douglas H. Erwin, and Frederick J. Collier and photographs by Chip Clark is simply a marvelous book about early Cambrian life some 540 million years ago. We get a rare look into life's past and what makes the Burgess Shale such a significant part of life's mystery is that these fossils, in most cases, are soft- bodied fauna and flora.

"The Fossils of the Burgess Shale" is a snapshot into life's past and there are only a few locations (30) left that can afford such a look ( China, Central America, Greenland, Spain, Poland, and Southern Australia). Found in 1909 by Charles D. Walcott, high in the Rocky Mountains of Canada, now part of Yoho Park in British Columbia, who had a huge collection of these remarkable fossils shipped back to the Smithsonian Institution where he was Secretary. Today the Cambrian is among the most intensively studied intervals in the history of life, and the debate rages over what triggered the rapid appearance of most major groups of animals.

The photographs in this book are a major accomplishment as it affords the reader with an example of the fossil in question along with a line drawing of what this particular flora of fauna looked like. Thus, making the reader aware of what the authors are talking about.

If you've ever read "It's a Wonderful Life" by Stephen Jay Gould or "The Crucible of Creation" by Simon Conway-Morris "The Fossils of the Burgess Shale" will make a great companion book that explains some of the personalized conclusions that are found in these books and it makes it very clear as to what they are discussing. The preservation of soft-bodied animals is not evenly distributed through the fossil record. Thus, making this book all the more important concerning about what life was like.

The first few pages of the book explains where the Burgess Shale is and its significance and the major players in which have played an important part in the furthering the knowledge of these fossil remains, how fossilization probably occured.

The remainder of the book is devoted to the fossils of the Burgess Shale, with illustrations, discussions, full page photographs and reconstructions of 85 out of 125 recognized genra. The text accompanying the illustrations aims to provide an outline of the morphology, mode of life, and the affinities of the organism. There is ample identification of the sample fossils so the specialist can search for further data.

"The Fossils of the Burgess Shale" is rated a solid 5 stars and is one of the best books that I've found for life in the Cambrian. You will not be dissapointed with this book as it delivers in spades.

If you've ever kept a scrapbook of old photographs, you'll understand the fascination of this collection. Instead of grandmothers, aged aunts or toddler cousins, this book reveals life from the dimmest past. With photographs and drawings, Briggs and his colleagues have restored to view rare animals that lived in ancient seas. These are our earliest forebears, and for that reason alone, this book is worth repeated scrutiny. The images, with their stories of discovery and restoration, are offered in a spirit of shared discovery. These are very special creatures and it behooves us all to understand their value.

Although the book is targeted for professional paleontologists, the authors give us text nearly as illustrative as the images. They are part of the team who personally enticed many of these fossils from their lithic prison. Beginning with an account of Charles Woolcott's trek into the mountains of British Columbia, they go on to describe the environment in which these creatures lived. The significance of the Burgess Shale fossils, of course, is that they are images of soft body parts, usually lost as fossilization proceeds. At the time of the original find in 1909, such artifacts, especially ones of such ancient deposition were pricelessly rare. Woolcott himself understood their value to science, but never dedicated the necessary time to tease out their full secrets. It took Briggs and others, particularly Simon Conway Morris to apply the painstaking effort to recreate the body forms locked in the shale. In so doing, they overthrew a number of blithe assumptions made by a number of commentators, in particular Stephen J. Gould who had popularized the Shale finds, but sadly misinterpreted what they represent.

As you slowly turn over the pages of this book, reflect on the vast ages separating you from these creatures. The sea has always kept some bizarre secrets, but few can match the multi-spined Hallucegenia or mud-burrowing Ottoia. Haplophrentis might be mistaken for a Roman dagger lost in the sea until you read that its maximum length was but 30 millimetres long. A more formidable denizen of these waters is the Anomalocaris, with its hooked feelers and rasping mouth. Swimming in a sea with this half-meter long predator might not have been dangerous, but observing it might best be done from the beach.

This book is a clearly valuable contribution to our understanding of life's history and the process of evolution. It belongs on the shelf next to the other albums of family history. Take it down from time to time and simply open it at random. With half-closed eyes it isn't difficult to see these creatures in their daily lives, clutching rocks, swimming through the water, or burrowing into the bottom. They are your forebears, and deserve as much of your respect as does Aunt Matilda.

The Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies contains rarely preserved fossils of the soft body parts of animals, including many from the Cambrian. This reference provides good quality black and white photographs and illustrations of 85 of the 125 recognized genera of the Burgess Shale. Of interest, the proportion of the total Burgess Shale fossils a given specimen represents, is given.

This is a wonderful book. It is chock-full of photographs of Burgess shale fossils. The photographs are full page photographs and are accompanied by drawings that illustrate what the plant or animal probably looked like. The text is informative and easy to follow for a layperson.

"The Fossils of the Burgess Shale," the non-geologist will find this book fascinating and understandable - yet the author did not "water down" the facts for those of us who have the technical background in the fields of geology and paleontology. The only drawback of the book was that some of the species listed in the back were not included in the pictorial portion of the book. I do understand that if Briggs had placed them all in the book the volume would have been over a 1,000 pages in length; however, several of the species not included are equally spectacular!

The first third of the book provides a brief history of the site and it's significance within Cambrian paleontology; the remaining two-third portion of the book provides clear photographs and line drawings of the animals entombed in this special location. I have used this book in teaching about the Cambrian explosion. Students were awed by the content of the book. If you are interested in invertebrate paleontology; this book is a must!