Fishes of the Central United States

by Joseph R. Tomelleri, Frank Baker Cross

With colored pencils, graphite, and painstaking attention to scientific detail, Joseph Tomelleri has created 163 magnificent illustrations that are both technically and aesthetically satisfying, capturing subtle differences among fishes that are lost to the camera lens. More than one hundred species are illustrated in full color--some for the first time ever, some for the first time as male/female pairs and juveniles. Included are the fishes of the entire central U.S.--from the Great Lakes through the Mississippi Valley to the southern tip of Texas, and west to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. To write the accompanying text, which focuses on the ecology and natural history of each species, Tomelleri teamed up with fellow biologist Mark Eberle. Their species-by-species accounts are informative but not technical, and interwoven with folklore and anecdotes. Do you know, for example, what fish looks like "Mother Nature's hand-held vacuum cleaner?" Can you name a minnow that reaches five to six feet in length? Or the fish that sometimes turns up in farmers' fields--alive? What fish has a gizzard? Which one swims a victory lap after it catches its prey? Tomelleri and Eberle solve these mysteries and many more in this lavishly illustrated compendium of fish facts and lore.

226 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1990