Winner of Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Title award, January 2005, this bestseller is written by a Who's Who lineup in elasmobranch research. It brings together the latest information on the phylogeny, physiology, behavior and ecology of sharks and their relatives, the skates, rays, and chimaeras. The book includes 19 chapters that address phylogeny; form, function, and physiological processes; and ecology of sharks and their relatives that dominate the Chondrichthyes. Each chapter in Biology of Sharks and Their Relatives offers a comprehensive succinct review of the subject with extensive up-to-date citations. Nearly 200 illustrations are included with 8 full-color plates.