The Diversity of Fishes

by Gene S. Helfman, Bruce Collette, Douglas Facey

Fishes, as the largest group of living vertebrates, offer almost unlimited opportunities for the study of evolutionary adaptations to environmental and biotic selection pressures. The book covers basic fish anatomy, physiology and phylogeny, but the major theme of the book is evolution. For example, What has been the effect of evolutionary pressures on the form and function of fishes? Pitched at the undergraduate market, this book will serve as a...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865422567
• ISBN13: 9780865422568
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.8" x 11.2"

Customer Reviews

Awesome Book

One of the best textbooks on fish today. Gives a great overview of all the relevant topics going into detail in the places where it is best needed. If you want to know anything about fish this is the perfect place to start and if you are going to be teaching a class on fish, this is the textbook for you!

The "Brusca and Brusca" of fish Biology?

I have been using Moyle and Cech (an Introduction to Ichthyology) for years as the standard text to recommend to undergraduate students interested in developing a solid knowledge of basic fish taxonomy/biology/ecology but I think Helfman et al is a much more student-friendly textbook. It is split into sections: Introduction, form function & ontogeny, taxonomy phylogeny and evolution, zoogeography genetics and adaptations, behaviour and ecology, the future of fishes (conservation). These sections a sub-divided into sensible chapters. The writing style is clear, peppered with good references for further reading and the authors make good use of excellent figures. As well as the reference list there are supplemental reading recommendations. The authors make good use of boxes to highlight interesting areas, e.g. vicariance versus dispersal, should we eat farmed salmon? and finish off each chapter with a bullet point summary. Being a single book treatment of a vast subject there are some sections where I guess the need for brevity has enforced absences, e.g. there is no mention of the special properties of fish eye lenses in the vision section and the section on swimming seems a bit sparse (and would probably benefit from more use of diagrams). In summary, this is an excellent text that will appeal to undergraduates and serve as a useful sourcebook for tutors.

Satisfied customer

Book arrived in good condition as stated in book description and i was very pleased with how fast i received my purchase. I would certainly buy from this seller again...

More Ecology Than Moyle and Cech

This is an outstanding upper-division textbook on fishes, comparable to Moyle and Cech, with important differences. These authors place more emphasis on behavior and ecology. These authors also utilize cladistics (explained in an excellent early chapter on systematics) throughout in their classification of fishes. This textbook is probably a bit more detailed in its content and slightly less readable than Moyle and Cech, but both make excellent references. Helfman et al include a number of boxed readings which provide up-to-date information on scientific research and other interesting fish topics (like eelskin boots!)

perfect

The book was recieved in a timely fashion, and was in immaculate condition. I will definately be doing business with them again.