Australian Echinoderms: Biology, Ecology and Evolution

Description

Echinoderms - including feather stars, sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers - are some of the most beautiful and interesting animals in the sea. They play an important ecological role and several species of sea urchins and sea cucumbers form the basis of important fisheries. Over 1000 species live in Australian waters, from the shoreline to the depths of the abyssal plain and the tropics to Antarctic waters. Australian Echinoderms is an authoritative account of Australia's 110 families of echinoderms. It brings together comprehensive information on the identification, biology, evolution, ecology and management of these animals in a single volume for the first time. Richly illustrated with beautiful photographs and written in an accessible style, Australian Echinoderms is the perfect companion of marine enthusiasts, academics and fisheries managers both in Australia and anywhere these fascinating animals are studied.

Maria Byrne is Professor of Marine and Developmental Biology at the University of Sydney. Her research interests are on the biology, ecology, conservation and evolution in marine invertebrates with a focus on echinoderms from across the globe and more recently on the impacts of climate change. Timothy O'Hara has been researching echinoderms since high school. Since becoming a curator at Museums Victoria in 2001, his research has focused on using the vast amounts of data and specimens stored in museum collections to address issues of biodiversity conservation and management. He has conducted biodiversity and ecological surveys, mapped the distribution of seafloor animals across oceans, used extracted DNA to study evolution, and described many beautiful new species.