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Nov 20, 2013
Fearsome hatchet fish … fangtooth fish… blackdevil anglerfish … vampire squid … carnivorous comb jellies… yeti crabs … viperfish and many more! Readers will meet fifty of the strangest, most extraordinary creatures that live beneath the surface of the world’s oceans in Erich Hoyt’s beautifully-photographed book. Some of these animals are quite scary-looking; some are large and others are quite tiny - but to describe all of them as “strange” or “weird” isn’t an exaggeration. These creatures appear odd to us because we’ve never (or rarely) seen them. Many are newly discovered – only two manned voyages have ever been made to the Mariana Trench (located in the deepest part of the earth’s oceans, it is the habitat of many of these sea creatures) - and some haven’t even been given a scientific name yet. Some of the creatures really do seem to exist on the fringes of imagination. Consider the loosejaw dragonfish, which sports a semi-detachable lower mandible….or the mantis shrimp, which ambushes prey by delivering a lethal blow equivalent in force to a 22-calibre bullet … or the acorn worm, which has no brain, eyes or known sense organs! Hoyt’s photographs of these creatures are stunning and are certain to stir the imagination. Each close-up colour plate clearly reveals details as fangs, tentacles, eyes and even colour-emitting cells. An informative caption accompanies each photo. A Canadian scientist specializing in marine animals and marine conservation, author Erich Hoyt has many other books to his credit.