Invertebrates Books

Though it is becoming somewhat dated (the only reason I gave this book 4 stars), this text is a great one for a one-semester undergraduate invertebrate zoology course. The book is pitched well for the undergraduate student. One thing that attracted me was the attention Kozloff pays to the smaller phyla, groups that are often given little time and space or are even left out completely in other texts developed for the undergraduate crowd. The line drawings and figures are good. If you are looking for a book to support an ecological/natural history flavor, then check out this book. If you want more emphasis on taxonomy try Rupert and Barnes. If you want an evolutionary approach, try Brusca and Brusca. I have used this book for my Jr/Sr level invertebrate zoology course since it came out and I have been quite happy with it, but if there's not an update in the near future I may need to consider switching texts.

This book is a great text for introductory courses in invertebrate zoology. Its format is very readable and provides an appropriate amount of detail for this level. It also has lots of pictures, which is especially helpful when studying more obscure phyla. Diversity of major phyla is covered as well. My only complaint is that the book sometimes doesn't say much about structure and function. This is one book you won't want to sell back to the bookstore when the course is over!

A must read, even if only for the sections on the little known phyla of aminals. Although released before the advent of the super-realistic photographs we are priviledged to enjoy today, the ink drawings are quite informative and the text is as near-perfect as could be done. A true classic on the subject.

This book tells you the complete guide to the marine aquaria, very immformative and answers about about all of you questions, brilliant for beginner to expert, fantastic!

This book is worth while as it is loaded with information. Though it maybe a older book, the information makes it a great resource.

This book is very good at reviewing some of the literature on the leech biology and behavior. I am a scientist wroking with the leech as amodel for regeneration and I found this book very helpful when starting my research. Even though it is an old book, I think it still gives you the basis on leech neurobiology.

A very helpful and interesting study guide which will help you that little bit further by its clear diagrams and useful text. Definately a must!!

This book is a well-written summary of the research on larger foraminifera which the author instigated and supervised during his long career as a micropalaeontologist. Drooger's established a school of thought in this specialized field, and all his students are well-represented in the book. It is probably one of the most comprehensive textbooks on Tertiary larger foraminifera, but there are still a few groups missing: the soritids, for instance, and most of the nummulitids, although the latter are, strictly speaking, not radial.

It could be argued that the specialized subject stands in the way of Drooger reaching a broad audience. But this is also due to a lack of imagination on the author's behalf. Other evolutionists have drawn very interesting general conclusions from specialized subjects (Darwin was inspired not only by finches but also by barnacles, worms, and rather obscure plants), but Drooger does not do that. He only arrives at a general conclusion, i.e. the validity of the principle of nepionic acceleration (which was first put forward about 60 years before this book was published). Drooger identifies several apparent exceptions to this rule, though, and only in one case does he come up with a suitable explanation: repeated large-scale migration (in the European lepidocyclinids). This is not applied to the miogypsinids and lepidocyclinids of SE Asia, where it could have been considered. General considerations on how natural selection works on foraminiferal morphology are missing. It would have been very interesting to learn about why it is that becoming radial is just one of the few adaptive strategies available to larger foraminifera. Instead, Drooger marvels at the various ways in which various groups of foraminifera reach the radial Nirvana.

Even after reading the entire book from front to back, one is still left with the question of how to apply one's newly acquired knowledge. Zonations based on larger foraminifera do exist but are hardly mentioned, and certainly not developed further, in this book. This may be due to the fact that such zonations are based on all sorts of larger foraminifera, not only radial ones. But it is also true that Drooger is not really a stratigrapher. His evolutionary lineages are plotted in morphometric scatter diagrams rather than displayed against geologic time. I suspect that the author, rather than limiting himself to his strenths here (which is a good thing), was quite shy to show his weaknesses (which he fails to admit). After so many decades of intense study, mainly sponsered directly or indirectly by the petroleum industry, this absence of direct practical stratigraphic application is a disappointment, because the applications certainly do exist.

Still, it will probably be a long time before a book like this will be written again. I hope it will be re-printed soon.

Beautiful photography is enhanced by scientific and common names, plus descriptions of locations and depths for the mollusks. Includes bibliography (note: 1985!) and glossary, plus a sizing scale on back fly.

On the whole, Ruppert & Fox have developed a very useful, easy to read field guide. Indeed, this is probably the best general purpose field guide for Southeast marine invertebrates available (it is also far better than the comparable Peterson guides). This guide is perfect for people who are just beginning to explore the marine environment, or for people who do not necessarily need to unequivically identify organisms to the species level. Overall, most hobby-level naturalists will find this an excellent addition to their libraries.

That said, however, no field guide is without flaws and this one has several. First, when you attempt to identify organisms, you find that taxa are arranged in a haphazard fashion. In a (poor) attempt to make ID's easy, the authors have forsaken the traditional taxonomic organization of phyla and have ordered them according to general morphological appearance. Second, with the descriptions provided, it is often very difficult to distinguish among con-geners. Finally, the authors have included lots "just so" natural history information. Although this certainly spices up the reading, many of the stories are unfounded. As an example: the authors claim that the Sargassum Sea Slug (Scyllaea pelagica) feeds on the floats of sargassum weed, which then provide the slug with buoyancy. This is not true. The "floats" inside Scyllaea are actually camoflaged hepatic organs.

Although these problems don't detract from the general usefulness of the guide, they are distracting, and at times misleading. Overall, though, this is an excellent resource and a must for all Atlantic (USA) marine naturalists.