The Ocean's Menagerie : How Earth's Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life

Explores the remarkable biology of ocean invertebrates, highlighting their extraordinary adaptations and contributions to medicine, engineering, and ecological balance, while weaving the author's personal journey as a marine biologist with a call to protect these ancient and vital underwater ecosystems. Illustrations.

An elegantly written exploration of the cutting edge science of the strangest and most remarkable creatures on our planet by a leading marine biologist

Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms that rival human cities, and jellyfish that glow in the dark: ocean invertebrates are among the oldest and most diverse organisms on earth, seeming to bend the “rules” of land-based biology. Although sometimes unseen in the deep, the spineless creatures contain 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defense.

In The Ocean’s Menagerie, world-renowned marine ecologist Dr. Drew Harvell takes us diving from Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from St. Croix to Indonesia, to uncover the incredible underwater “superpowers” of spineless creatures: we meet corals many times stronger than steel or concrete, sponges who create potent chemical compounds to fight off disease, and sea stars that garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in balance. As our planet changes fast, the biomedical, engineering, and energy innovations of these wonderous creatures inspire ever more important solutions to our own survival.

The Ocean’s Menagerie is a tale of biological marvels, a story of a woman’s passionate connection to an adventurous career in science, and a call to arms to protect the world’s most ancient ecosystems.