Theodore W. Pietsch is professor emeritus in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and curator emeritus of fishes at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, both at the University of Washington. He is the author of Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea and Trees of Life: A Visual History of Evolution.

James Wilder Orr is a fisheries biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington.

Joseph Tomelleri is an internationally acclaimed fish illustrator whose work has appeared in more than one thousand publications. His illustrations are rendered from actual fish, the majority of which he has collected in the field, to ensure scientific accuracy.