Richard Moore, professor of biology and assistant vice president for grants and sponsored research at Coastal Carolina University, has co-authored a new edition of "Biology of Fishes," a widely used textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Co-written with Quentin Bone of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom in Plymouth, U.K., the third edition represents a substantial revision and update of earlier editions. A new chapter by Moore on the immune system has also been added.

The third edition of "Biology of Fishes" characterizes fish as remarkably efficient machines for coping with the many problems that life in water entails. "Fishes form the largest group of vertebrates," says Moore, "comprising more than 20,000 known species, and they display a remarkable diversity of size, shape, internal structure and ecology to cope with environments ranging from transient puddles to the abyssal depths of the sea."

"Biology of Fishes" does not try to cover all aspects of fish biology equally, but focuses on the ingenious ways in which fish have resolved the particular problems that come from living in water, especially body fluid regulation, locomotion, feeding mechanisms and sensory systems.

The book is published by Taylor & Francis Ltd.