Ocean.OCEAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY American Museum of Natural History, incorporated in New York City in 1869 to promote the study of natural science and related subjects. Buildings on its present site were opened in 1877. Staff of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and other contributors present an elaborate reference to the underwater realm. Without the oceans, explains Fabien Cousteau in the book's introduction, Earth would be just another lifeless rock. This detailed book introduces readers to all aspects of the ocean. The opening explains phenomena such as the oceans' origins, sea-level change, tectonics, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the global water cycle. The next chapter is devoted to ocean environments. It describes coastal landscapes around the world as well as the mostly hidden world of the deep ocean. Next, the book reviews the various organisms that live in the ocean or that rely on it for food, from bottom-dwelling bioluminescent bi·o·lu·mi·nes·cence n. Emission of visible light by living organisms such as the firefly and various fish, fungi, and bacteria. bi plankton plankton: see marine biology. plankton Marine and freshwater organisms that, because they are unable to move or are too small or too weak to swim against water currents, exist in a drifting, floating state. to the more familiar mollusks, bony fish, and marine mammals marine mammals mammals inhabiting the sea; generally taken to include the cetaceans (whales, porpoise, dolphin), the sirenians (sea-cows, including manatees and dugong) and the pinnipeds (the carnivores of the group, seals, sealions, walruses). . Finally, an atlas of the world's oceans offers details such as areas, maximum depths, and currents. OK, 2006, 512 p., color images, hardcover, $50.00. |
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