"In 1833, Charles Darwin was astonished by an animal he met in the Falkland Islands: handsome, social, and oddly crow-like falcons that were "tame and inquisitive . . . quarrelsome and passionate," and so insatiably curious that they stole hats, compasses, and other valuables from the crew of the Beagle. Darwin wondered why these birds were confined to remote islands at the tip of South America, sensing a larger story, but he set this mystery aside...

Animals are all around us, but sometimes we forget just how remarkable they are. In this beautiful hardback, we take a look at some of the world's most incredible creatures, from those you can spot in your back garden, to more endangered species in jungles, deserts, and freezing oceans. We also explore our relationship with these animals and how humans are affecting their lives and habitats.

"Did you ever wonder what a bee looks like underneath its furry coat? Did you know that a seahorse protects itself with both armor on the outside and a skeleton on the inside? Can you guess why a tree frog needs to use its eyes to swallow? With Inside In, photographer Arie van 't Riet gives us a rare chance to see beneath the surface of some of nature's most captivating creations--tiny insects, fascinating fish, intriguing reptiles and amphibians,...

"Even though the dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago, we're still piecing together new information about these ancient animals. Did you know that, on average, a new species of dinosaur is discovered every single week? Or that many dinosaurs had feathers? Or that there are even modern-day dinosaurs walking around right now? New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed paleontologist Steve Brusatte writes about all the new discoveries...

"Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. He is also a scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. In this book, he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself. Mammals and birds are widely seen as the smartest creatures on earth. But one other branch of the tree of life has also sprouted surprising intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting...

"In this remarkable groundbreaking book, a documentarian and conservationist, determined to dispel misplaced fear and correct common misconceptions, explores in-depth the secret lives of sharks -- magnificent creatures who play an integral part in maintaining the health of the world's oceans and ultimately the planet. From the Jaws blockbusters to Shark Week, we are conditioned to see sharks as terrifying cold-blooded underwater predators. But as...

"No celebrity rivals Elizabeth Taylor's glamour and guts or her level of fame. She was the last major star to come out of the old Hollywood studio system and she is a legend known for her beauty and her magnetic screen presence in a career that spanned most of the twentieth century and nearly sixty films. But her private life was even more compelling than her Oscar-winning on-screen performances. During her seventy-nine years of rapid-fire love and...

"The collected poems of the award winning American poet Frank Bidart"-- Gathered together, the poems of Frank Bidart perform one of the most remarkable transmutations of the body into language in contemporary literature. His pages represent the human voice in all its extreme registers, whether it's that of the child-murderer Herbert White, the obsessive anorexic Ellen West, the tormented genius Vaslav Nijinsky, or the poet's own. And in that embodiment...

"Internationally bestselling author and renowned scientist Tim Flannery and his daughter, scientist Emma Flannery, deliver an informative-yet-intimate portrait of the megalodon, an extinct shark and the largest predator of all time. When Tim Flannery was a boy he found a fossilized tooth of the giant shark megalodon at a beach near his home in Australia. This remarkable find--the tooth was large enough to cover his palm--sparked an interest in paleontology...

"Why cracking the code of human conception took centuries of wild theories, misogynist blunders, and ludicrous mistakes. Throughout most of human history, babies were surprises. People knew the basics: men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The Seeds of Life is the remarkable and rollicking story of how a series of blundering geniuses and brilliant amateurs struggled for two...