Monarchs of the Sea : The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods

Monarchs of the Sea : The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods
ISBN: 9781615197408
Publication Date: 27 October 2020

An epic and fun history spanning from the mollusks that invented swimming to the octopuses and other intelligent cephalopods of today

Publisher's Note: Monarchs of the Sea was previously published in hardcover as Squid Empire.

Before mammals, there were dinosaurs. And before dinosaurs, there were cephalopods-the ancestors of modern squid, octopuses, and more creatures-Earth's first truly substantial animals. Essentially inventing the act of swimming, cephalopods presided over an undersea empire for millions of years-until fish evolved jaws, and cephalopods had to step up their game or risk being eaten. To keep up, some streamlined their shells and added defensive spines, while others abandoned the shell, opening the gates to a flood of evolutionary innovations: masterful camouflage, fin-supplemented jet propulsion, and intelligence we've yet to fully measure.

Monarchs of the Sea is an epic, witty history about these bizarre but beautiful creatures that ruled the seas-and still captivate us today.

About the Author

Danna Staaf earned a PhD in invertebrate biology from Stanford University and has been studying cephalopods for decades. Her writing on marine life has appeared in Science, Atlas Obscura, and many other outlets, while her research has appeared in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Aquaculture, and others, as well as in numerous textbooks. She lives with her family in Northern California.