Yes, sea urchins

"Nationalnyckeln" was intended to become a kind of super-encyclopaedia, a work covering all (sic) species of living organisms found in Sweden, including the insects, spiders, worms, weeds, etc. The project was supported by the Swedish government and had the blessing of the crown princess Victoria. In the end, only 15 volumes were published. Each volume had staggeringly high production costs and few buyers. The Swedish government got cold feet, and eventually discontinued the funding. I'm not entirely surprised. We're talking about huge, multi-colour books about obscure creatures such as booklice, peanut worms and micro-moths! In all fairness to the editors, they also published volumes on fish, ants and butterflies...

This is the latest volume of "Nationalnyckeln", covering all species of echinoderms found in Sweden: starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins (including the "irregular" ones), sea cucumbers and feather stars. It also covers hemichordates (acorn worms and pterobranchs). Leafing through the pages, with the full-size colour illustrations of most species, is an almost bizarre experience. These creature look like they might as well come from another planet. In a sense, they do: being an invertebrate at sea is presumably very different from being, say, a troll in cyberspace.

Unfortunately for foreign readers, this well-produced volume is entirely in Swedish. Even the short species summaries in English have been quietly shelved in this volume. It could have some kind of collectors' value, though. Or it might just look impressive on your bookshelf.

Note that Nationalnyckeln still has a functioning site on the web, where you can find information on all 15 volumes. Apparently, a 16th volume is still waiting in the wings, so if you're Swedish and your first love in life are the 218 species of mosses filed under "Bryophyta: Hookeria - Anomodon", you might just get a treat later this year, LOL.

Five stars. Well, what did you expect?