Praise for the first edition:
More than a picture book ... Hoyt's elegant writing provides both the
historical background for deep-sea exploration and an ecological
perspective on life in the ocean's depths.
--American Scientist
A magnificent bestiary ... and a reminder of how little we actually
know about the seas surrounding us.
--Popular Science
Winner, Outstanding Nonfiction Book of the Year
--American Society of Journalists and Authors, Inc., New York
In this updated third edition of Creatures of the Deep, award-winning
nature and science writer Erich Hoyt gives readers a glimpse of the
amazing variety of creatures found in the deepest parts of the ocean.
Weaving together details from the latest scientific research about
sharks, giant squid, dragonfish, huge tube worms, clams and tiny
microbes of the deep-sea vents, Hoyt embarks on a magical journey
roaming across the abyssal plains and descending into deep-sea trenches
more than 20,000 feet down.
Hoyt unravels the complex predator-prey relationships, from killer
copepods to battles between giant squid and sperm whales, presenting
compelling portraits of animals that are superbly adapted denizens of a
dark high-pressure world. There are life forms, independent of sunlight
and photosynthesis, which flourish around the hot, sulfurous deep-sea
vents in the magnificent rift valley of the mid-ocean ridge, the world's
longest mountain range. Surviving in conditions that appear to be close
to the very soup of primordial Earth, these microbes have become the
basis for the latest research into Earth's origins. This book is fully
illustrated with fantastic underwater imagery.
