The Ocean’s Menagerie: How Earth’s Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life
Drew Harvell. Viking, $32 (288p) ISBN 978-0-593-65428-6
Harvell (Ocean Outbreak), an ecology professor emeritus at Cornell University, serves up an entrancing examination of marine invertebrates’ many peculiarities. She describes, for instance, how the coral skeleton has evolved to act “like a hall of mirrors” directing sunlight toward the tiny photosynthetic algae that live within coral and generate energy for its host. Sea slugs known as nudibranchs upended prevailing scientific wisdom that “cells and tissues were not shared between different species,” she writes, discussing how they incorporate into their own defensive systems the “vicious stinging cells called nematocysts” that they absorb from the anemones they prey on. Exploring scientific efforts to harness aquatic creatures’ adaptations for humanity’s benefit, Harvell describes how pharmaceutical companies are working to incorporate the cancer-slowing chemicals produced by sea sponges into drug treatments, and how doctors hope coral-derived materials might one day be used as a substitute for human bone in reconstructive surgeries. Throughout, Harvell emphasizes invertebrates’ outsize influence on their ecosystems, describing how giant clams filter pathogenic bacteria from water and how coral provide protection from waves and erosion for the crustaceans, fish, and other creatures that live on reefs. Buoyed by fascinating trivia and lay reader–friendly science, this should be a no-brainer for nature lovers. Agent: Katherine Flynn, Calligraph. (Apr.)
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Reviewed on: 02/04/2025
Genre: Nonfiction