science

The Bichir Handbook

The Bichir Handbook is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Bichir Handbook rather than just read about it. In short: The Bichir Handbook is a book written by conservationist and graphic designer Joshua Pickett from Salisbury, England, about living fossil fishes known as Polypteriformes (bichirs), found throughout west and central Africa, and formerly South America. In the book, Pickett describes all extant Polypteridae, and details extinct species with illustrated reconstructions.

Key takeaways

The Bichir Handbook belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Bichir Handbook to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Bichir Handbook from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Bichir Handbook is a book written by conservationist and graphic designer Joshua Pickett from Salisbury, England, about living fossil fishes known as Polypteriformes (bichirs), found throughout west and central Africa, and formerly South America. In the book, Pickett describes all extant Polypteridae, and details extinct species with illustrated reconstructions. The book was designed by the author and illustrated by paleoartist Dorian Noël. The author includes commentaries from Polypterus researcher, Emily M. Standen, and former editor of the Journal of Fish Biology, Olaf L. F. Weyl. A second edition with a higher pagination was published in December 2025, containing new content and revised science.

Reception The Bichir Handbook was commended in the 'Top 20 Best Ever Fish Books' by Practical Fishkeeping magazine, March 2021, and was well received by readers, winning various awards. The book has been as described as being "more than an 'ordinary' book" by DATZ Magazine, and Head of the Science Department at Deutsches Meeresmuseum, Timo Moritz claimed "there is no other publication summarizing so much helpful data on keeping polypterids". Cybium is quoted as saying "[The Bichir Handbook] must be read by all aquarists, and ichthyologists working on current and fossil Polypteridae".

As part of their Dinosaur Valley attraction, Nong Nooch Tropical Garden installed statues of the illustrations inside the book, each exceeding 1.5 metres in length. They include the extant Polypterus senegalus, P. palmas and P. bichir, with the project aiming to complete statues of each species of polypterid. The founder of Dinosaur Valley, Thapanut Uvijitr, explained he chose these illustrations to construct into statues thanks to their "accurate meristics and identifiable features".

Awards and honors The Bichir Handbook has been nominated for the following awards.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Bichir Handbook

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Bichir Handbook claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Bichir Handbook before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Bichir Handbook ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Bichir Handbook

In research: The Bichir Handbook appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Bichir Handbook in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Bichir Handbook is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2020 non-fiction books, Ichthyology, Illustrated books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Bichir Handbook outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Bichir Handbook in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Bichir Handbook means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Bichir Handbook out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Bichir Handbook in simple terms?

Why does The Bichir Handbook matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Bichir Handbook?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Bichir Handbook.