Drew Harvell

** A NATURE, WALL STREET JOURNAL AND THE TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR **A mind-expanding journey into our planet’s least explored and most critical frontier: the ocean – and the astonishing, ancient creatures who call it home. 'An enchanting book' SUNDAY TIMES'Magic' TOM MUSTILL, author of How to Speak WhaleFor hundreds of millions of years, the seas’ spineless creatures were the only animals on Earth. Hidden in the ocean’s vast depths, they have adapted to thrive in an evolving world. Only now are we beginning to discover their superpowers. The Ocean’s Menagerie takes us down into this incredible underwater realm. From Hawaii to Indonesia to the Salish Sea, we meet coral kingdoms tougher than steel, jellyfish that glow like lanterns, and sponges harbouring potent cancer-fighting secrets. As our planet changes fast, these otherworldly marvels hold promises for our own survival – and remind us why we must protect the ocean, our most valuable and vulnerable ecosystem, while we still can. 'Vividly revelatory' WILLIAM GIBSON'Each page is full of wonder and surprise' STEVE BRUSATTE'Harvell writes with tangible delight' SPECTATOR'Thank goodness for marine biologists like Drew Harvell ... Fascinating' THE TIMES

''An enchanting book'' THE TIMES, *BOOK OF THE WEEK*''Revelatory'' WILLIAM GIBSON''Each page is full of wonder and surprise'' STEVE BRUSATTE''Magic'' TOM MUSTILLA transporting exploration of the deep sea, and how our planet’s strangest, most ancient and astonishing creatures have urgent relevance to cutting-edge science today.Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms the size and shape of 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, these incredible spineless creatures contain 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defence.Marine ecologist Dr Drew Harvell takes us diving from Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from the Caribbean 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 who garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in perfect balance. As our planet changes fast, the biomedical, engineering and energy innovations of these wondrous creatures hold ever more important secrets 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.''A warm and wondrous book'' CARL SAFINA''Unforgettable'' NICK PYENSON''A book of marvels'' THOR HANSON