The book · by Firoiu Dan Nicolae

Glowing Oceans: a deep-sea art book of 101 glowing creatures

An illustrated atlas of the deep sea and its bioluminescent animals, in 303 plates, with checked facts, maps, six signs on every creature and 294 sources.

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The book

Glowing Oceans

An Atlas of Glowing Living Forms

Text and 303 plates by Firoiu Dan Nicolae

101 of the deep sea's most extraordinary creatures, shown as glowing portraits and explained in plain language, arranged in ten families of shape, such as Lantern Spheres & Balloons and Ghostly Phantoms. It is a gallery to browse, not a textbook.

Every creature has the same six infographics: depth, size, range, glow, water temperature and pressure, so readers can compare them at a glance. Every fact has been checked against scientific databases and studies, and the book lists 294 sources. It has about 228 pages.

101creatures of the deep

10families of shape

24 × 30 cmcloth hardcover, gold foil

294scientific sources

The Glowing Series

Glowing Oceans is book I of the Glowing Series. Each atlas can become an exhibition of its own, and the exhibition comes with its book: shown beside the works, presented at the opening and signed by the artist.

Glowing Bugs

Insects, spiders and other small creatures as living glass.

Glowing Dinosaurs

The great reptiles as light and energy.

And more to follow

Glowing Fungi, Glowing Sharks and further titles are planned.

The science in the book

A work of art that can be trusted

The plates are the artist’s vision. Everything printed beside them is natural history: names, measurements, ranges and facts, each one checked. This is how a creature’s pages are built.

The two pages of the humpback anglerfish in the book: the text page with its facts, field notes, map and dials, and Plate I

The humpback anglerfish, creature no. 21 of the book: its text page and Plate I.

1The number and the shape family
Each creature has its place in the book and its family of shape, one of ten, such as Lantern Spheres & Balloons or Ghostly Phantoms.
2The common name and the epithet
The name most people know it by, and a name of its own: for the humpback anglerfish, “The Living Light-Rod”.
3The scientific name
In Latin, checked against the World Register of Marine Species: Melanocetus johnsonii.
4Three facts
Short, surprising, and written to be read aloud. Each is traced to a source.
5Field notes
Range, lifespan, size, weight, colour and diet, as a naturalist would note them.
6The plates
The creature as living glass, and further studies of it, so that each animal has three plates.
7Life size
The animal drawn at its true size, beside a human hand.
8The six signs
Depth, size, range, glow, water temperature and pressure, the same on every creature, so that one can be compared with another at a glance.
9The source
Every measurement and fact has a source, printed at the back of the book.

Turn the pages

Every creature has two facing pages: what is known on the left, the full plate on the right.

The cover: two pages of Glowing Oceans — The coverAn Atlas of Glowing Living Forms

Pelican Eel: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Pelican EelI · Serpentine Cords

Diaphanous Hatchetfish: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Diaphanous HatchetfishII · Angular Shields & Hatchets

Humpback Anglerfish: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Humpback AnglerfishIII · Lantern Spheres & Balloons

Atacama Snailfish: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Atacama SnailfishIII · Lantern Spheres & Balloons

Vampire Squid: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Vampire SquidIV · Pulsing Parasols & Domes

Atolla Jelly: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Atolla JellyIV · Pulsing Parasols & Domes

Giant Isopod: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Giant IsopodV · Spindly Walkers & Insectoids

Bloody-Belly Comb Jelly: two pages of Glowing Oceans — Bloody-Belly Comb JellyVIII · Crystals & Neon Skeletons

The six signs

A row of six signs, the same on every creature, lets even a young reader compare one with another at a glance.

DepthHow deep it lives, on a scale from the sunlit surface to the deepest trench.

SizeIts true size, beside a human hand.

RangeWhere in the world’s oceans it is found, on a map.

GlowThe colour of its light, and how it makes it: on its own, or with glowing bacteria.

TemperatureThe water it lives in, from warm surface seas to near freezing, on a dial.

PressureThe weight of the sea above it, on a dial.

How the book was checked

101Creatures checkedEvery creature was checked against the scientific databases of the sea, among them FishBase, SeaLifeBase, the World Register of Marine Species and MBARI, and against published studies.

101Scientific namesEach species is given its Latin name as currently accepted. Where the research found a name had changed, the book was corrected.

10Families of shapeThe creatures are arranged by the shape of their body and their light, not by their family tree, so the book reads as a gallery.

294SourcesEvery fact is traced to where it comes from: scientific papers, museums, institutes and universities. The sources are printed at the back of the book.

The book also has a guide to reading its pages, a glossary and an index. The plates are artistic interpretations and do not show the true colours of the living animal.