Peter Wirtz Libri

About 7 million years ago, the Strait of Gibraltar opened and, in a giantic waterfall, the Mediterranean Basin filled with water from the Atlantic Ocean. The animals living in the Mediterranean Sea and in the eastern Atlantic Ocean are therefore closely related. This book presents about 820 species of costal invertebrates in more than 1000 underwater photographs. All large and common species are shown, many others have never been photographed before, some have only recently been detected and some are still undescribed. Four of them were named in honor of the author, who has observed the behaviour and ecology of eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean animals during the last 30 years.

This book covers 150 fish species known to occur around the islands of Macaronesia. These species are illustrated on more than 200 colour figures which are accompanied by short descriptions.