Natural History Museum Book of Animal Records - 9781770852693

The definitive guide to the most exceptional creatures on Earth.

From an award-winning zoology writer and the experts at the National History Museum in London comes 256 pages packed with thousands of fascinating facts, animal records and stunning photographs. Here are the achievers from all animal groups: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and invertebrates.

These achievements are not only the familiar ones like highest, fastest, best sense of smell and most colorful, but the unusual, like man-eating, most vegetarian, least toes. Most bizarre defence, highest g-force and strangest ribs. In fact, almost all the records are extraordinary, like midwife bats, the many blood-eating species in all animal orders and the only primate with echolocation (the aye-aye). Many others dispel myths about animals, like centipedes having the most legs, not millipedes.

The mammals, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates are organized by animal order, family and species. Birds are organized by category. The records relate to many characteristics, for example, for Camelidae (camels and llamas) the facts include their domestication, the altitude at which they live, the largest and the smallest, and how the various species have adapted to their habitat. Exceptionality is within each category rather than the entire Animal Kingdom, so in mammals, the largest bat is the flying bat but the largest of all mammals is the elephant, and the largest of all animals is the blue whale.

Illustrated with 240 color photographs and informative captions, Animal Records includes almost 900 records:

• Mammals: 4 Orders, 33 Families, 381 records
• Birds: 12 categories, such as Prehistoric, Bird Senses and Bird Athletes; 133 records
• Reptiles: 4 Orders, 4 Families, 101 records
• Amphibians: 3 Orders, 33 records
• Fish: 38 records
• Invertebrates: 3 Orders, 191 records

Animal Records includes different records for the different groupings, so instead of being a completely comprehensive guide, it aims to include the records that are most relevant and interesting for each type of animal, showing the diversity and wonder of the animal kingdom. Throughout the book there are special boxes highlighting top record holders.

Science is revealing unknown behaviors and finding new species. Behavioral research is adding new dimension to what animals do, where, how and why. There is always more to learn about the creatures that share our earth. Animal Records is a fascinating sampling of these amazing discoveries.