Spineless : portraits of marine Invertebrates, the backbone of life / Susan Middleton ; foreword by Sylvia A. Earle.

Foreword / Sylvia A. Earle --Introduction --The tree of life : ancestral relationships --Basic designs for living : body plans --Unity and diversity : life activities --Species profiles / text by Bernadette V. Holthuis --About the photography --Acknowledgments.

In Spineless, acclaimed photographer Susan Middleton explores the mysterious and surprising world of marine invertebrates, which represent more than 98 percent of the known animal species in the ocean. They are also astonishingly diverse in their shapes, patterns, textures, and colors--in nature's fashion show, they are the haute couture of marine life. This collection of more than 250 remarkable images is the result of seven years of painstaking fieldwork across the Pacific Ocean, using photographic techniques that Middleton developed to capture these extremely fragile creatures on camera. She also provides short essays that examine the place these invertebrates occupy on the tree of life, their vast array of forms, and their lives in the ocean. Scientist Bernadette Holthuis contributes profiles describing each species, many of them for the first time. --