A Nature Best Book of 2025 • A Wall Street Journal Holiday Gift Pick An elegantly written exploration of the cutting edge science of the strangest and most remarkable creatures on our planet by a leading marine biologist Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms that rival human cities, and jellyfish that glow in the dark: ocean invertebrates are among the oldest and most diverse organisms on earth, seeming to bend the “rules” of land-based biology. Although sometimes unseen in the deep, the spineless creatures contain 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defense. In The Ocean’s Menagerie , world-renowned marine ecologist Dr. Drew Harvell takes us diving from Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from St. Croix to Indonesia, to uncover the incredible underwater “superpowers” of spineless creatures: we meet corals many times stronger than steel or concrete, sponges who create potent chemical compounds to fight off disease, and sea stars that garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in balance. As our planet changes fast, the biomedical, engineering, and energy innovations of these wonderous creatures inspire ever more important solutions to our own survival. The Ocean’s Menagerie is a tale of biological marvels, a story of a woman’s passionate connection to an adventurous career in science, and a call to arms to protect the world’s most ancient ecosystems. “[Harvell’s] tour of wondrous creatures, from extremely strong corals to sponges that release compounds now used as drugs, shows how climate change threatens their existence. We need to look after this ‘menagerie.’” — Nature “Reading [Harvell's] words, you not only grasp her talent and scientific brilliance; you feel the depth of the passion for her work, shown through the most utter admiration for the world of invertebrates, one she communicates openly and vividly, clearly driven by wonder and curiosity.” —Earth.org “The strange creatures of the deep ocean are endlessly fascinating, and Drew Harvell’s fascinating exploration of the depths (sorry) of their wondrousness is as gripping as you’d hope.” —Lithub A love letter to the ocean, and its weird and wonderful creatures, from an eminent explorer and marine biologist. Each page is full of wonder and surprise, and in every tale of a shape-shifting octopus or luminous jellyfish, we are reminded why the ocean is worth conserving.” —Steve Brusatte, New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs “Ocean invertebrates have billions of years of experience living, changing and proliferating into an astonishing array of shapes, sizes, and ways of living. They’re more diversely weirder—and more mysterious—than big, bony, familiar animals. Drew Harvell has explored, thought deeply about, and actually lived in the ocean. The ocean’s life is woven into her own. She is deeply in love with her amazing subjects; a few pages into this warm and wondrous book, you will be too.” —Carl Safina, bestselling author of Beyond Words “Everyone lives on Planet Ocean, but not everyone has a front row seat to see what makes it so wonderful. Drew Harvell is the teacher you want to reveal the intricate mysteries that make up most life in the sea. The Ocean’s Menagerie has unforgettable lessons that mix science, wonder, and a deep love for life beneath the water’s edge.” —Nick Pyenson, author of Spying on Whales “Dr. Drew brings us a magnificent stable of marine critters, so beautiful as to be almost art, so astonishing in their lifestyles as to be almost superheroes. She delivers smooth prose like the incoming tide, building a depth of feeling and flow of discoveries to let us see, underneath every wave and in every sea, how thrillingly complex and stunningly lovely ocean wildlife can be.” —Stephen Palumbi, PhD, author of The Extreme Life of the Sea “In an underwater world of sea pens and comb jellies, where stony lettuce corals do battle with purple gorgonians, Drew Harvel is the perfect guide, companion, and translator. She writes with undiminished wonder about creatures she has spent a lifetime studying, filling The Ocean’s Menagerie with astonishing science and storytelling. A book of marvels!” —Thor Hanson, author of Close to Home “ The Ocean's Menagerie is a marine smorgasbord of the spineless. Her life's-work, exploring the cracks and crevices of seafloors across the world is the backbone of a story full of overlooked organisms who thrive without one. What she has discovered is magic and bewildering, astonishing creatures that challenge our idea of animalhood and pull off biological tricks that transform our landlubber lives. This will make you look again at the marine lives around you, whether you swim past them or encounter them on the shore. The exquisite and strange inventions marine invertebrates have evolved are as surprising and wonderful as the glass miniatures that unite her journeys. It is