Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific

The impact of the front cover of this attractive book is good - lots of invertebrates (a nice change from fish and sharks) in an artistic arrangement: anemone, soft coral, cowrie, stomatopod, ascidians, brittle star, and flatworm. Inside, the title page says: Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific: animal life from Africa to Hawaii exclusive of the vertebrates. ...

The text and bullet points on the back cover advertise its usefulness to divers and that the work of the 50 best photographers has been used. It then goes onto the more important aspects, such as species coverage (more than 1100) and the geographical area included. Marketing ploys, but never-the-less ....

The book itself is almost A4 in page size, 1+ cm thick, softback; substantial, heavy, and lovely to handle. A foreword by John Randall is followed by a 13-page introduction, covering classification, evolution, phylogeny, biotic communities, corals and coral reefs, and biogeography. This is all very readable, informative, and nicely illustrated. A page is devoted to 'how to use this book': in this the authors absolve themselves of their title and state that they cover 'the tip of the iceberg'. Then the photographic section begins, phylum by phylum, followed by the final pages of acknowledgements, references, list of genera, and index.

The colour photos are without doubt beautiful, and it appears it was this which governed the inclusion of species - with tens of 1000s of named species, previously never or badly illustrated, the inclusion of named species rather than unnamed ones would have been more beneficial: approximately only half of each group has named species, except for the molluscs. The range of coverage devoted to this latter phylum is extensive, including many unusual species. The photographs are of live animals in their natural habitat, which is a bonus for shells are normally pictured dead. Some lovely cephalopods are included, as well as tusk shells and polyplacophorans. Many other interesting groups are covered: the benthic ctenophores are great - I wonder if I have ever seen one but not known? - and there are some lovely pycnogonids and flatworms.

One big problem I have with this book, and really the main criticism, is that there are no scales or indications of size. This really is a bind, and a major oversight on the part of the authors and the publishers. Otherwise, in the text accompanying the photographs, there is good information on natural history, including the locality of the specimen photographed. There are numerous range extensions, and new records; some species are recorded for the first time since their original descriptions. The information included for each species is without doubt useful, even if you haven't a name for the beast!