Life in the Dark: Illuminating Biodiversity in the Shadowy Haunts of Planet Earth

by Dante Fenolio

Deep inside caves, at the bottoms of oceans and lakes, beneath the ground: these concealed habitats are absent of sunlight. This strange and fascinating world of complete darkness is not a solitary place--it is inhabited by millions of life forms. Yet most humans--creatures of daylight--have never seen any of them. Until now.

In this fascinating--sometimes eerie--book, extreme wildlife photographer and scientist Dante Fenolio brings the denizens of these shadowy haunts into focus. Life in the Dark shows us the many ways in which life forms have adapted to lightless environments, including refinements of senses, evolution of unique body parts, and illumination using "biological flashlights."

With more than 200 mesmerizing color photographs, Life in the Dark unveils bizarre creatures like the firefly squid, the giant Amazonian catfish, the Chinese cavefish, and even the human bot fly, which lives in the darkness beneath its host's skin. Fenolio's rich and vibrant images shed new light on the world's fascinating creatures of darkness.

Genres: Science, Nature, Nonfiction, Animals, Biology, Photography, Art

312 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2016

Reviews

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I need this book.

http://skunkbear.tumblr.com/post/1428...

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Karlissa J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been waiting for a book about animals adapted to living in the dark - including subterranean and deep sea habitats - and here it is! (Plus, who better to write it than Dante Fenolio?)

Though this is less of a guide book and more of a commentary, it does contain short profiles for a variety of species, including over twenty cavefishes (considering most books only address one, that's pretty revolutionary). I also enjoyed the author's short stories about his own adventures encountering and photographing the often bizarre world of darkness-adapted creatures.