Sandy and muddy sediments of our seas are not mere barren wastes as they appear at first glance, but swarm with a rich variety of animal life, particularly the microscopic meiofauna comprising diverse groups of free-living invertebrate animals from Ciliophora to Tunicata. Investigations of the meiofauna from tidal to abyssal zones of seas around the world during the twentieth century led to the discovery of many aberrant taxa new to science, making a valuable contribution to systematic zoology. The fauna is highly modified in structure to answer biological demands of the turbulent marine environment. Hitherto, there is no consolidated work on the fauna to cater the needs of meiobenthologists.
In the circumstances, the book on meiofauna of marine sediments just published presenting a comprehensive, concise and compiled information on the astonishing morphological diversity of these animals comprising 32 groups, 334 families, 1274 genera and 2164 species inhabiting seas around the world, is welcome. All the species dealt in the text are fully figured and their diagnostic features given to help identification.
Many global areas of our seas remain unexplored or underexplored for the fauna. India has a long coastline of nearly 8000 Km including the Andaman-Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, with a vast potential for meiobenthic investigations. In this connection, the present work on meiofauna would be quite useful to future investigations for further studies on taxonomy, ecology and distribution of the fauna.
The book deserves a rightful place on the library shelf of all national and international marine biological institutions of higher learning interested in the study of these strange meiofaunal organisms.