Status Updates From Monarchs of the Sea: The Ex...

I absolutely adore the ecological conservation section at the end of this book. I love the way it ties in every single note and subject that has been discussed so far, and paints the massive picture of the current affairs of cephalopod life using current data of population, location, and influential organizations and committees activation efforts.
I also want to make a side note for myself here. A Douglas Adam’s!?

I do like the contrast in writing, where there are a few moments of overly academic language used to describe normal occurrences, and others where casual, almost conversational language is used from describe very abnormal members of a lineage to compare wild traits of one animal to another. It’s very endearing.

I know I say something similar almost every update, but I do absolutely adore the cohesion this book expresses between one subject and another. There are a few topics here and there that continue to be brought up here and there, but the way that it is done and the point that it makes by doing so is actually so cool to see. I also love the almost thesis statement of the next chapter and how it is organized.

A CLUE joke? That is a perfect analogy for explaining what we know and what we don’t about the asteroid that ended the Cretaceous period. A CLUE joke? That’s actually funny?

All bits aside, that made me laugh as hard as it caught me off guard. I absolutely love not just the pace, but the seamless and casual flow of this book.

I absolutely adore how she describes structure to lineage, and how the structures that fossils had leading to different uses and interpretations by the first people to discover them. I love how respectful she is of the original owners of such fossils, and the millennia that have been fought struggling to keep them from more powerful groups.

The usage of species and sub species names got a little confusing, but I think the main point it was trying to explain with divergence of shape, purpose, and lifestyle, overtime across the three types of cephalopods was really well done

I love how naturally the subject changes and how much is described and explained, even in only two pages

I love how in depth (no pun intended) the description of the history of understanding the taxonomy and form and function behind different ammonite species, shells, and aptychus is described. I love how everything is put together with where fossils were discovered, how that area formed and what the context behind those formations are. I also love how it described how the three linages of cephalopods coexisted.

I absolutely adore how wide of a scope this book is described in, and how manageable it is to read. There are a few wording choices that feel may be a little harder to understand sometimes, and I find myself rereading sentences or paragraphs more often then I did at the beginning, but over all it is fascinatingly engaging and entertaining, and I am genuinely learning a lot.

I absolutely adore how much each subject is described, who is relevant and responsible for discoveries, and how they feed into the next subject, while retaining a good idea of the time frame and ecological pressures, without ever seeming over worded, cluttered, or hard to follow. The illustrations are also perfectly used. There is never an instance where it feels overdone or unneeded.

I absolutely love how well each subject is set up to play into the next, and how different subjects are allowed to rely on one another to paint a fuller picture. I adore how casual yet potent the information in this book is.

I absolutely adore the amount of genuine knowledge that is expressed with such enthusiasm and passion in such a reachable and digestible way. Staaf writes as someone who understands what it’s like to be a wide eyed kid, a curious student, and an educated professional and expresses it so flawlessly in a way that seems incredibly casual.