Publisher Description

Easily Identify the Living Things You Find on Intertidal Rocks!
Enjoy learning to identify marine life on the rocky north Atlantic coast with this pocket-size field guide from author Cherie Hunter Day. With this handy, easy-to-use book, you'll be able to identify a wide variety of living things in no time. And its small size makes it just right for fitting into your pocket or pack when you go for a walk along the rocky coast.
Features:

• Identifies plants and animals that live in the intertidal zone of the rocky coast, from Cape Cod north to the Bay of Fundy
• Explores and provides information about the specific and unique life that thrives in tide pools, caves, and crevices, as well as on rocks, wharves, and pilings
• Explains intertidal ecology and how these fascinating and varied creatures--sea slugs, crabs, rockweeds, star fish, and many others--survive in the harsh and ever-changing environment between the limits of high and low tide

Author Biography

Cherie Hunter Day currently resides in Menlo Park, California, and is the author of several nature-themed books.

Table of Contents

Species List Blue-green algae Thread-like green algae Ribbon-like green algae Sheet-like green algae Brown algae and Rockweed Feathery brown algae Kelps Sheet-like red algae Calcified red algae Feathery red algae Sponges Hydroids Sea anemones Coiled tubeworms Scaleworms Ribbonworms Periwinkles and whelks Mussels Jingle shells and toenail shells Sea slugs and nudibranchs Bryozoans and sea-moss animals Acorn barnacles Isopods Amphipods Crabs Spider crabs Lobster Hermit crabs Sea spiders and pycnogonids Sea stars Sea cucumber Sea urchin Tunicates Sea squirts Vertebrates and fish

Excerpt from Book

Isopods These abundant, well camouflaged crustaceans have flattened bodies and fused abdominal segments. Breathe through leg-like appendages under tail plate. With seven pairs of walking legs, they are well adapted for crawling and swimming. Most depend on speed to escape enemies. Females carry developing young in brood pouches. Northern Sea Roach Ligia oceanica Body to 2.5 cm long, grey-green to golden-brown. Scavenges and scurries over wharves and pilings in upper level and splash zone. Baltic Isopod Idotea baltica Body to 2.5 cm long, tan to olive-green, often colorfully mottled with red, brown, black, and white. Scavenges among lower level seaweeds, and in crevices. North Shore Isopod Jaera marina Body to 5 mm long, grayish-tan. Common on middle and lower level pilings, seaweeds, and hydroids. Grazes on algal film and detritus that collects on sheltered shores.

Details