Reviews
In this book, Erich Hoyt explores the strange and hostile environment where what appears weird is the norm. The photographers took long cruises across the oceans to capture and record these little-known creatures. Inside these pages you will look with fear and fascination at 52 of the oddest animals you will ever meet... The wonder and extraordinary weirdness of what lives in the deep sea, so far away from us and yet so close, will start to become familiar with this book., This unusual book showcases riveting photos of rarely seen and recently discovered deep-sea animals. Brightly lit, clearly delineated, and often highly magnified, their colorful and sometimes bizarre or even horrific forms seem to glow against the stark, black backgrounds... Hoyt contributes a fascinating introduction discussing conditions in the deep ocean [and] explains how photographers captured the remarkable images., (starred review) Fangs, fur, and photophores abound in this colorful celebration of decidedly odd and recently discovered species. Through 50 gorgeous photos, readers are introduced to a yeti crab; a spined pigmy shark... an album of rare beauty. Stunning full-page photos give readers a rare close-up view of animals ranging in size from a 1/24 inch oikopleura squirt to a six-foot-long orangeback flying squid, each accompanied by a brief informative paragraph... This is a veritable book of revelations. A feast for the eye and a tickle for the mind., Kids who prefer non-fiction and love weird stuff will leaf through this book again and again. It features incredible photographs of 50 of the oddest animals that live in the sea. The images appear to be illuminated on the glossy black pages for this look at creatures that live in the deepest parts of the sea. Not only weird, many are elusive, having only been recently discovered and are therefore unnamed., Close-up photos of 50 creatures--gathered, mostly, from ocean deeps--demonstrate that even our own planet's residents can look really, really alien... [The] picture gallery features full-page side or front views of animals ranging from bulbous sea cucumbers and sea anemones to an exaggeratedly toothy viperfish, a writhing benthic octopus and a furry crustacean evocatively dubbed a yeti crab.... Eerie, riveting eye candy for budding biologists and casual browsers alike., In this book, the reader will be introduced to 50 weird sea creatures such as the Carnivorous Combjelly, the Deep-Sea Brittle Star and the Squat Lobster to name just a few. Many have been discovered by scientists so recently that they have no definite scientific name. This resource has spectacular images with detailed background information for each caption. The photographers took long cruises across the oceans to capture and record these odd, unknown sea creatures. Several of these creatures are found in the deepest part of the sea. The introduction discusses how these creatures adapt to their underwater environment. The author encourages the reader to take in the wonder, the extraordinary weirdness, of what lives in the sea. This book would appeal to young and older readers who are fascinated by the many creatures who live in the deep., Bright and colourful over-sized photographs...set on a deep-sea black background, simply pop from the page, allowing one to imagine how these creatures would appear in the ocean... The creature descriptions are written for older students and adults but with younger readers in mind. ... While the introduction and some of the captions make for a challenging read for younger people, the photos are awesomely intriguing... a wonderful addition to an ocean life collection or a special gift to a future oceanographer. Highly recommended.