"This fascinating scientific foray into the animal kingdom examines how the world's creatures-- weird, wonderful, and everything in between-- are inextricably linked." -- Amazon.com.

"February 2015"--Title page verso. Originally published: London : Short Books, 2014.

Endlessness Demodex mites, humans -- Sex and the single slug Slugs -- 2, 8,10,12,13,18: Mammals and Mammaries -- Champagne Lifestyle New species -- Allspice, ant-killer Taxonomy and Systematics -- Orang orang Orang-utan and other primates -- My family and other family Classification -- Below the drop-off Carol -- Lemurs and archbishops Spineless Primates -- Introduction to invertebrates -- Long-jump gold medal Bushbaby -- Architects of human culture Wasps -- The lion, the glitch and the glove compartment Lion -- Brother sponge Sponges -- The profile of Winnie-the-Pooh Bears -- Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish Glass Sponge -- Il buono, il brutto e il cattivo Hyena -- Sod the rainforest Moral coral -- The Half-and-halfters seals -- Walking plants Sea anemones -- Wimbledon champion Bovids -- Infernal agony of gelatinous zooplankton Jellyfish -- Walking with Jechwe Lechwe and genenuk -- Life in the round starfish -- Do I know you? Naked more rat -- Flatworm, flatworm, buring bright Flatworm -- The elephant in the corridor Elephant -- The holiness of tapeworms Tampworm -- Plan A for aardvark Aardvark -- Unkillable bears Tardigrades -- Flying flashers Idiuris -- Cans and cans of worms Nematodes -- Self-sharpening chisels Rodents -- Tipping the velvet worm Velvet worm -- Dirty rats Rats -- Another can of worms Anniled Worm -- Good old Ratty Water-vole and dormouse -- Trio for piano, bassoon and earthworm Earthworm -- Night-leaper Spring - hare -- The daughters or Doris Ribbon Worms -- Flashin' sunshine children Shrews -- Because I am many Bryozons -- That breathtaking breath Whales -- Getting silly Lampshells -- Song of the sea -- Dirty beasts Penis worms -- Gnomes of the river River dolphins -- Us alone Placazoatts -- Disgustingly upside down Bats -- Lacing Venus's girdle Comb jellies -- The altruistic vampire Vampire bats I84 -- Here be mud dragons Mud dragons -- Pocket dynamo Nematnniorphs -- The Hamlet worm Marsupials -- Death comes for the Elephant's Child Afore elephants -- Who needs oxygen? Loricifera -- Epiphany Even more elephants -- A bit samey Arrow worms -- Time for transition Platypus -- The peanut trick Peanut worms -- Fearher Kestrel -- No sex please, we're bdelloids Rotifers -- The nausea of Charles Darwin Peacock -- Evolution in reverse? Thorny-headed worms -- How many ways of catching a fish? Toucan, river birds -- ****! Hairy-backs -- Look, no stabilizers Batcleur -- The crypto-bums Goblet worms -- Same bat time, same bat hawk Bat bowk -- Lobsterisimus bumakissimus Symbions -- The dark side Owls -- Is-ness Jaw worms -- Crisis relocation Terns -- The Quaker worm Xenoturbellids -- Swift scramming frenzy Swifts -- Gutless, brainless Acoelomorphs -- Jewels that breathe Hummingbirds -- Just one more thing Phoronids -- The wardrobe bird Flamingos -- James Bond and the kraken Giant squid -- Instant birder Lilac-breasted roller -- Superslug Octopus -- The Clever Club Crows -- Nautilus but nice Nautilus -- Bell-bear of their wings Swans -- She sells seashells Shell-wearing molluscs -- 22:1 Albatross -- Fearful the death of the diver must be Giant clam -- No flying, please, we're birds Flightless birds -- Valuing oysters Oysters -- Do I contradict myself? Penguins -- One more twist Gastropods -- Hijoputido Passerines -- Creeping like snail Giant African, land, snail -- Wild thing Marsh warbler -- On our last legs Arthropods -- Blood-chilling Crocodile -- A suit of armour Japanese, spider crab -- Snakes, unclad humans and a garden Snakes -- Beloved barnacles Barnacles -- Secret snakes Adder -- The silk route Spiders -- Disgusting clumsy lizards Lizards -- The Kalahari Ferrari Solifygids -- Good luck, little metaphor Turtles -- Twenty centimetres! Centipedes -- Shape-shifters Amphibians -- Second innings Large blue butterfly -- When I was a rain god Frogs -- Laser epiphany Blue, morpbo -- Death by frog Golden poison frog -- Les demoiselles du Waveney Dragonflies -- A miraculous draught of newts Newts -- Cannibal sex Praying mantis -- Beautiful shirts Gaecilians -- Unreal city Termites -- "Fish" Fish -- True bugs suck Bugs -- The stillness of salmon -- Salmon -- Let copulation thrive Flies -- The Eden fish Clear Fish -- Prostitutes and clients Bees -- That's no parasite: that's my husband Anglerfish -- The wasp and the devil's chaplain Wasps -- The sinking fish Sharks -- The best butter Butterflies and months -- No bones about it Cartilaginous, fish -- Inordinate fondness and all that Beetles -- Ray of Sunshine Manta ray -- Axis of weevil Weevils -- Epilogue The beginning Jawless fish, lobe-finned fish.