The Trinidadian guppy ("Poecilia reticulata") is well known to biologists and home aquarium enthusiasts alike. Scientists have studied guppies for most of the twentieth century. Some of the most intensive recent research has been conducted by behavioral ecologists, who have found that the guppy mating system makes guppies especially useful in the study of sexual selection and mate choice. By observing guppy behavior in aquaria, researchers hope to obtain new insights into how selection operates in natural populations. Here Anne Houde summarizes and synthesizes the scientific work done to date, relates the empirical findings on guppies to current themes in sexual selection theory, and suggests new directions for future research.

This book describes the sexual behavior of guppies and examines how mate choice by females leads to the evolution of the conspicuous colors and the courtship displays for which guppies are widely recognized. The author shows that female guppies prefer males with bright color patterns, especially those with orange spots, and that the mating preferences of females lead to sexual selection on both color patterns and courtship displays of males. Houde's work addresses a number of areas that are of interest in sexual selection, including the remarkable degree of plasticity and evolutionary lability of sexual behavior in guppies, geographic variation in mating preferences, possible mechanisms for the evolution of female mating preferences, and the role of sexual selection in speciation. In conclusion, the author explores the implications of her findings for behavioral ecologists who study sexual selection in other species.

Michael Muller has carved a career out of impressive encounters. Famed for his portraits of the world's most elite actors, musicians, and sports stars, he has in the last decade built up one of the most spectacular portfolios of underwater shark photography. Muller's quest is to document sharks with an unprecedented proximity and precision, bringing the Hollywood portrait session to the ocean predator. In ocean depths around the world, he approaches the sharks with a patented seven-bulb, 1200-watt plexi-encased strobe lighting rig, developed with NASA engineering, and no cage. This collection of Muller's images, including the first-known photograph of a great white breaching at night, is a catalog of adrenalin and awe. Arranged geographically, it follows Muller's ocean adventures from black tip and sand tiger sharks in South Africa to great hammerheads in the Bahamas, with thrilling narratives from each trip documenting the challenges and near-misses along the way. To compliment Muller's work for advocacy organizations such as WildAid and EarthEcho, the images are contextualized with essays from Philippe Cousteau, Jr. and marine biologist Alison Kock, who discuss exploration and conservation of our oceanic kingdom. Culture writer Arty Nelson adds an overview of Muller's work, while a technical section explains the precise equipment behind these spectacular shots. Together, these insightful texts and awesome images offer a record of breathtaking photographic feats, a tribute to the beauty and might of the shark, and a rallying cry for its fragile future. This book is also available in a signed Collector's Edition and two Art Editions, each including a signed and numbered print.

Absolutely captivating creatures, seahorses seem like a product of myth and imagination rather than of nature. They are small, elusive, and are named for their heads, which are shaped like miniature ponies with tiny snouts. They swim slowly upright by rapidly fanning their delicate dorsal fin, coil their tails to anchor themselves in a drift, and spend days in a dancing courtship. Afterward, it is the male who carries the female's eggs in his pouch and hatches the young. Seahorses are found worldwide, and they are highly sensitive to environmental destruction and disturbance, making them the flagship species for shallow-water habitat conservation. They are as ecologically important as they are beautiful. Seahorses celebrates the remarkable variety of seahorse species as well as their exquisiteness. 57 species, including seadragons and pipefish, are presented in lush, life-size photographs alongside descriptive drawings, and each entry includes detailed and up-to-date information on natural history and conservation. Sara Lourie, a foremost expert on seahorse taxonomy, presents captivating stories of species that range from less than an inch to over a foot in height, while highlighting recent discoveries and ecological concerns. Accessibly written, but comprehensive in scope, this book will be a stunning and invaluable reference on seahorse evolution, biology, habitat, and behavior. Masters of camouflage and rarely seen, seahorses continue to be a fascinating subject of active research. This visually rich and informative book is certain to become the authoritative guide to these charming and unusual wonders of the sea, beloved at aquariums the world over.

An authoritative guide to the identification, systematics, distribution, and biology of the thirty-eight species of the Order Beloniformes in the western North Atlantic Ocean The final volume in the Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series covers the Beloniformes, a diverse order of fishes containing six families and at least two hundred and thirty extant species found worldwide in marine and freshwater environments. This excellently illustrated, authoritative book describes the thirty-eight species of beloniform fishes-needlefishes, sauries, halfbeaks, and flyingfishes-that live in the western Atlantic Ocean. Compiled from new revisions, original research, and critical reviews of existing information, this tenth book in the series completes a major reference work in taxonomy and ichthyology for both amateurs and professionals, and all students of the sea. Distributed for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.

The Fishes of the Western North Atlantic series, which began publication in the 1940s by Yale University's Sears Foundation for Marine Research, was from its beginnings conceived to synthesize and make accessible the wealth of information in widely scattered published accounts of the fish fauna of the region for both the layman and the specialist, presenting critical reviews rather than compilations. These reference works are still considered valuable and of interest today to both general audiences and the academic community. As described in the Preface to the first volume, the series was "written on the premise that it should be useful to those in many walks of life-to those casually ... interested ..., to the sportsman ..., to the fisherman ..., as well as to the amateur ichthyologist and the professional scientist." These books remain authoritative studies of the anadromous, estuarine, and marine fishes of the waters of the western North Atlantic from Hudson Bay southward to the Amazon, ranking as primary references for both amateurs and professionals interested in fishes, and as significant working tools for students of the sea.