The waters around Australia are home to the greatest diversity of sharks and rays on Earth. Fully 100 of these sea creatures (and their little-known relatives, the chimaerids) have been named or described since the first edition of this book. This second edition brings more than 300 of these species to life in full-color illustrations.

Rays are among the largest fishes and evolved from shark-like ancestors nearly 200 million years ago. They share with sharks many life history traits: all species are carnivores or scavengers; all reproduce by internal fertilisation; and all have similar morphological and anatomical characteristics, such as skeletons built of cartilage. Rays of the World is the first complete pictorial atlas of the world’s ray fauna and includes information on many species only recently discovered by scientists while undertaking research for the book. It includes all 26 families and 633 valid named species of rays, but additional undescribed species exist for many groups. Rays of the World features a unique collection of paintings of all living species by Australian natural history artist Lindsay Marshall, compiled as part of a multinational research initiative, the Chondrichthyan Tree of Life Project. Images sourced from around the planet were used by the artist to illustrate the fauna. This comprehensive overview of the world’s ray fauna summarises information such as general identifying features and distributional information about these iconic, but surprisingly poorly known, fishes. It will enable readers to gain a better understanding of the rich diversity of rays and promote wider public interest in the group. Rays of the World is an ideal reference for a wide range of readers, including conservationists, fishery managers, scientists, fishers, divers, students and book collectors.

Sharks and rays have long held the fascination of a great many people, and as well as exploring their history, biology, environment and the myths that surround them, this book also gives practical advice on the best ways and places to see them.

The Action Plan for Australian Sharks 2020 is the first action plan for Australia's chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras). This book presents the IUCN Red List status of all 329 species occurring in Australian waters including Subantarctic ad Antarctic waters. The majority of the fauna is secure, although roughly one in eight species is threatened with extinction. The Action Plan presents specific actions required to address knowledge gaps, and outlines conservation actions for each species. This book is a call to action to secure all of Australia's sharks, rays, and chimaeras.

Australia has an extremely diverse shark and ray fauna. There are more than 300 different species and at least half of these only swim in our waters. This user friendly guide is for fishers, scientists and observers to identify the main Australian species.