Rays of the World

Rays are among the largest fishes and evolved from sharklike ancestors nearly 200 million years ago. They share with sharks many life history traits: all species are carnivores or scavengers; all reproduce by internal fertilization; and all have similar morphological and anatomical characteristics, such as skeletons built of cartilage. Rays of the World is the first complete pictorial atlas of the world's ray fauna and includes information on many species only recently discovered by scientists while undertaking research for the book. It includes all 26 families and 633 valid named species of rays, but additional undescribed species exist for many groups. Rays of the World features a unique collection of paintings of all living species by Australian natural history artist Lindsay Marshall, compiled as part of a multinational research initiative, the Chondrichthyan Tree of Life Project. Images sourced from around the planet were used by the artist to illustrate the fauna. This comprehensive overview of the world's ray fauna summarizes information such as general identifying features and distributional information about these iconic, but surprisingly poorly known, fishes. It will enable readers to gain a better understanding of the rich diversity of rays and promote wider public interest in the group.

About the Author :
Peter R. Last is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO National Research Collections, and former head of the Australian National Fish Collection, Hobart, Tasmania. William T. White is the senior curator of the CSIRO Australian National Fish Collection, Hobart. Marcelo R. de Carvalho is a professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Sao Paulo. He is also a Research Associate of the Department of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History. Bernard Seret is a consultant ichthyologist and shark expert, formerly at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Matthias F. W. Stehmann is a retired ichthyologist at the Zoological Museum of Hamburg. Gavin J. P. Naylor is Professor of Biology at the College of Charleston. J. D. McEachran has retired as a professor at Texas A&M University.

Review :
Overall, this was a tremendous effort and the editors and illustrator should be commended. This is a must have book for anyone with an interest in chondrichthyans, and should find a place in the libraries of any serious ichthyologist. (The Quarterly Review of Biology) It is the first book to exclusively illustrate all the world's rays, and was edited and written by some of the leading taxonomic researchers in the field.... The book is certainly not the last word on this group, but rather as the editors themselves commented on in the introduction, is a beginning to lay the groundwork for future research on this group of fishes. (Environmental Biology of Fishes)