Hidden Creatures
Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites
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- £12.99
Publisher Description
'Your world will be larger for reading this book' CHLOE DALTON author of Raising Hare
'The most persistent feeling, and one that Martins conveys beautifully, is one of awe at the sheer diversity and inventiveness of the living world' GUARDIAN
Welcome to the hidden, squirming world of parasites – some of the most misunderstood, and most important, creatures with whom we share the Earth. And our bodies.
There is the tapeworm, which can grow one hundred and twenty feet within the gut of a whale. The tsetse fly, a notorious vector of disease whose needle-like mouth can pierce even crocodile skin. And the most universal symbol of parasitic behaviour: the much-mythologised leech. Long villainised, yet vital to every ecosystem on Earth, these parasitic creatures have driven evolution, shaped civilisations, and altered the course of human history. And we have almost entirely ignored them.
Dr Dino Martins is an award-winning entomologist and biologist from Kenya's Turkana Basin – where life on Earth began – and he has made it his life's mission to demystify these beguiling beings. Hidden Creatures takes us on a journey around the world ten times over – from the wilds of East Africa to the rainforests of the Amazon, from Borneo to the public parks of London. Along the way, we encounter brilliant and eccentric experts and students who join Martins on his adventures to investigate not just parasites but their astonishing cast of hosts: elephants and rhinos, hyraxes and hippos, and, of course, the elusive human.
Immersive, entertaining and driven by an utterly infectious curiosity, Hidden Creatures has the magnetic force of a David Attenborough documentary and introduces a monumental, charismatic new voice in science writing. It will transform your understanding of the natural world.
About the author
Dr. Dino J. Martins is a Kenyan artist, naturalist and writer. An entomologist and evolutionary biologist, he currently leads the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya, founded by Dr Richard Leakey. He holds a PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University (2011), and a BA in Anthropology (with distinction) from Indiana University (1999).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stony Brook University entomologist Martins (You Can Be an Entomologist!) offers an enlightening overview of parasites, organisms that live on or inside a host creature and get nutrients at their expense. Though they often go unseen, these creatures play a vital role in ecosystems and have had a sizable impact on human history, Martins demonstrates. Drawing on his experience studying insects around the globe, particularly in his native Kenya, he details the lifestyles of a wide range of parasites. Among these are the "diabolical and horrific" guinea worms that enter the body through contaminated drinking water and at maturity reach a length of three feet; tsetse flies, whose needle-like mouthpart can pierce the thick skin of elephants and crocodiles; and the ubiquitous mosquito, small "flying syringes" that have shaped the fate of billions of people by sucking blood and leaving behind protozoan parasites that give people malaria. Parasites aren't all bad, Martins makes clear; maggots, for example, help clean up the world by decomposing dead flesh, and studies suggest intestinal worms play an important role in training humans' immune systems. Also included is a wealth of historical background, such as the use of leeches in medicine across Europe in the 1800s to treat inflammation, tumors, and gout. Simultaneously repulsive and intriguing, this will strike a chord with the insatiably curious.
