Great British Marine Animals (Paperback, 4th edition)

Great British Marine Animals is a colourful photographic guide to fish and invertebrate life in the seas around Britain. It helps identify a wide range of species and has a special focus on their behaviour with many spreads and sequences of stunning underwater photos to show them going about their busy lives. Beautiful sea anemones lash out with superbly armed tentacles, seemingly invincible crabs shed their armour suits to grow (some decorate them afterwards!), limpets argue with each other, versatile sea slugs recycle defensive weapons from their prey, starfish exert huge forces to pull open their victims while fish can build nests, clean each other or sometimes change sex when the situation demands - to list just a few examples! The extraordinarily sophisticated cuttlefish is given ten pages to show a range of its amazing skills, while the complex social life of the tompot blenny gets nine that even includes a panel of recognised individuals. This expanded 4th edition is much the biggest upgrade so far, containing 930 high quality underwater photographs (compared to 600 in the 3rd edition) and detailing 320 species (up from 280) in 432 pages (up from 320). The book is organised by animal groups and species but has a special additional 'behaviour index' to highlight their wonderfully diverse strategies and habits. It appeals to all ages and levels of knowledge.