Spotlight: Ichthyo

A fish's form is a good predictor of its behavior, says Jean-Michel Cousteau, architect and son of the great ocean explorer. A fish's story unfolds, he writes, through "the delicacy of bone and its intricate arrangement in service to the living creature." Cousteau's commentary, along with that of several other great ocean conservationists, accompanies this striking collection of digital X-ray images produced by scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, home to the world's largest ichthyology collection. This pair of Atlantic skate fish is archived in the company of some 3.5 million aquatic specimens, several hundred of which are artfully depicted in Ichthyo: The Architecture of Fish.