Survivors, By Richard Fortey

A quirky academic not in the first flush of youth, Richard Fortey was the perfect presenter for a TV series about "the animals and plants that time has left behind".

This book gives additional info on such survivors as the Queensland lungfish (it is "closest to the evolutionary line that became terrestrial") and Nautilus, a cephalopod that has buoyancy tanks like a submarine.

After surviving for aeons, the first was almost wiped out by a dam development, while the second is threatened by "trade in tourist trinkets".