Credit Where Due
First and foremost, I'd like to acknowledge my wife, Anne, whose seemingly boundless love, support, encouragement, patience, and good humor make my failures easier to bear and my successes more fun to share. I couldn't have done any of this without her.
Second, I'd like to thank the many fine and dedicated scientists — many of whom are named in these pages — who did the original research I draw upon continually in my work, especially those who very kindly and generously answered my many questions and sent me reprints of their papers.
Last but not least, over the years, I have had the good fortune of working with and benefiting from the combined knowledge and wisdom of many fine people. Several of the stand-outs in this regard are:
Marc Baldwin - scholarly elasmophile, test reader, and bibliographic helper
Alex Barron - cognitive psychologist, ReefQuest Expedition Leader, and colleague
Cheryl Black - former student, ReefQuest co-worker specializing in marine education
Jim Bourdon - creator of my favorite shark-related website, amateur paleontologist, archivist, and test reader
Phil Colla - talented underwater photographer who kindly and generously helped rescue one of my books
Ralph Collier - my White Shark guru and mentor, colleague, and long-time friend
Leonard J.V. Compagno - exemplar scientist, virtually everyone's chondrichthyan systematics guru, my long-distance inspiration and role model
James Cresswell - who helped me get to the root of the megalodon problem
Andy Currie - ReefQuest's Indian Ocean Project Coordinator, field assistant, Quint-like JAWS trivia master, and pub crawling mate
Alessandro De Maddalena - talented artist, shark researcher and author
Guido Dingerkus - walking encyclopedia and party animal, unfortunately now passed on
Jane Dougan - ever helpful and encouraging Distance Education guru at Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center, helping my "Biology of Sharks and Rays" course to run smoothly.
Richard Ellis - accomplished author/artist and personal inspiration
Dean Fessler - talented underwater photographer, shark researcher, and enthusiastic shark nut
Jeffrey Gallant - founder of Aqualog Society, talented underwater photographer, ambitious entrepreneur, incredibly enthusiastic and generous chap
Samuel H. Gruber - The Shark Doc, who has always been encouraging and supportive of my efforts
Neil Hammerschlag - former student and talented photographer, turned friend and colleague
Devi Haripal - CEO of Devi Multimedia, Devi is our talented, hard-working ReefQuest Marine Projects web designer and maintenance guru.
Chris Harvey-Clark - talented underwater film-maker and photographer, veterinarian, fellow marine naturalist, mentor and all-around nice guy
Matt Hawksworth - dedicated shark enthusiast and conservationist, film-maker, and ReefQuest's official marine documentarian
Bill Heim - fossil shark tooth collector, test reader, and intellectual sparring partner
Abdul Azeez Abdul Hakeem - Marine Consultant to Banyan Tree Maldives Marine Lab who invited me to work with his staff to establish a reef shark research program at Vabbinfaru and Angsana.
Jean-Pierre "Joe" Herber - enthusiastic collector of shark jaws and shark books, intellectual sounding board, and bibliographic helper
Gordon Hubbell - my shark dentition guru and a very, very nice man
Brett Kent - my megalodon, paleobiology and biomechanics sounding board
Tom King - shark fishing captain, marine naturalist, and fellow mako enthusiast
Marie Levine - a very nice lady who invited me to join her SRI 'family'
John McCosker - Chair of Aquatic Biology at California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; despite his own travel-intensive schedule, he usually finds the time to help me.
Brian Mould - biodiversity researcher and taxonomic sounding board who shares my penchant for myliobatoids and bats
Sean Nelms - talented artist who convinced me to give the medium of markers another go
Donald R. Nelson - fine scientist, technology junkie, and extraordinarily generous person - sadly, now deceased - my inspiration for getting into shark behavior
Carl Oerke - friend who is super-generous in sharing sharky resource materials
Larry Paul - fine scientist, writer, artist and mentor
Doug Perrine - talented underwater photographer, owner of Innerspace Visions, curator of the International Shark Photo File, and the savior of one of my forthcoming books
Tom Raycove - my best mate, confident, sounding board, and business advisor; despite working hard to launch his film directing career, Tom remains willing to spare the time to help me out anytime I ask.
Ben S. Roesch - scholarly elasmophile, test-reader, book buddy, and my cryptozoology guru
Jeff Seigel - very helpful curator of ichthyology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM)
Mikael Siverson - incredibly knowledgeable fossil lamnoid scientist
J.D. Stewart - enthusiastic, generous paleoichthyologist at LACM
Adam P. Summers - fine scientist, self-described "techno-weenie", and bibliographic helper
Eric Taylor - Curator of the Fish Museum at University of British Columbia, "Rick" is perennially supportive and encouraging of my research efforts at, and through, the University.
David Ward - my fossil lamnoid and hexanchoid guru
Rick Winterbottom - very helpful curator of ichthyology at Royal Ontario Museum
Chris 'Sharkbyte' Wise - super-enthusiastic test-reader and friend par excellence
