ABOVE, BELOW AND LONG AGO

A select gallery of elusive flora and fauna, from living and extinct fossils to an orchid that only blooms underground.

Bright doesn’t stick too closely to his “hidden places” premise, instead including several easy-to-find creatures, such as horseshoe crabs and barn swallows. But nature lovers won’t mind, since his 24 profiles are long on mysteries and surprising facts—and are accompanied by Emmerson’s vivid, multihued linocut portraits. In sections titled “Above,” “Below,” and “Long Ago,” the author offers introductions to creatures as ubiquitous as brown rats and as rare as the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse, which lives on the slopes of one volcano in the Andes and at a higher altitude than any other mammal in the world. Though the entries are brief, readers will come away with clear pictures of why each of Bright’s chosen subjects is unique and also about what remains to be discovered about many, such as how seeds produced by the western underground orchid are distributed or just what that Andean mouse can find to eat at such heights. Emmerson portrays the plants and animals in lively, naturalistic poses against detailed or textured backgrounds ranging from deep seas and black caves to bright, steep mountain crags and crowded cityscapes.

Stimulating ventures into some of the world’s less accessible locales.