The Book of Barely Imagined Beings

Conclusion page 377: mappa mundi . As Caleb Scharf writes in Gravity's Engines , “Our current map of the known universe contains a...

Chapter 27: Zebrafish page 370: what we may...learn . Recent advances include visualizations of the activity of nearly every cell in th...

Harlequin shrimp (page 357). Heaps of Yeti crabs here Chapter 26: Yeti Crab NPR's On Point featured this chapter as an excerpt ...

Sea pig Chapter 25: Xenophyophore page 343: undersea mountains, abyssal plains . Deeper still are trenches, which teem with microsc...

Horned owl Chapter 24: Xenoglaux  page 334: tipping point .  Some scientists say an Arctic thaw may be the first in a cascade .  ...

Chapter 23: Waterbear page 322 A greater and more durable [human] presence in space . John Fallows looks at a future mining the Moon an...

Mnemiopsis leidyi Chapter 22: Venus's Girdle page 316: [Cteonophore] lineage is uncertain . A major for reason for this is that t...

Rhinoceros beetle Chapter 21: Unicorn page 307: Unicorn's horn was the Viagra of its day. Rhino horn is the "natural" ...

Escher meets Ouroboros. Armadillo girdled lizard, southern Africa Chapter 20: Thorny Devil Page 297: analogous systems...in other arid...

Chapter 19: Sea butterfly page 285: the oceans have absorbed...much of the additional heat . See Missing heat found in oceans, global...

Chapter 18: Right whale page 270: Balaenidae .   The evolution of baleen whales may be linked to the freezing of Antarctica from abou...

'Let us deliver mankind from the ancient, universal tyranny...of gravity! ' Chapter 17: Quetzalcoatlus Choosing an animal begi...

Ocean sunfish Chapter 16: Pufferfish  page 242: appetite...out of control : especially when food is painstakingly engineered to addi...

Chapter 15: Octopus The New York Review of Books has published an excerpt from this chapter . page 229: a bleached version of Marge...

Chapter 14: Nautilus page 213: nothing so odd will do long. More about Nipponites here . page 222: Motion pictures...have enhanced...

Audax jumping spider. See page 200 Chapter 13: Mystaceus, a jumping spider page 199 (marginal note): approximately 110 families...

  Chapter 12: Leatherback  page 186: throat...lined with sharp...spikes . See photo here .  Jellyfish are bread and butter . See p...

Greater honeyguide Chapter 11: Kìrìpʰá-kò and Tʰìk’ìlí-ko, Honey badger and Honeyguide page 172 (marginal note): torture . The sear...

Mandrill Chapter 10 Japanese macaque page 154: female assisted by a male to whom she grants privileges . In The Serpent's Promis...

Chapter 9: Iridogorgia  page 134: symmetry . Mathematical forms too. Jason Padgett, a number theorist and artist with Acquired Savant ...