From publisher blurb:
The Sonora Sector is a diverse ecosystem with a wide variety of indigenous animal and plant life. New species of both are discovered almost daily in the Frontiers of Space. These creatures range from benign and productive creatures to dangerous and destructive predators. When encountering a new species for the first time it is often difficult to determine which category a species might fall within. While it might look harmless it might, in fact, be quite deadly. Species which look fearsome might well turn out to be a friendly species.
It is also, sometimes, difficult to tell whether a creature is an animal or an alien species. The defining factor for this volume is intelligence. If a creature is intelligent and capable of communication then it is an alien species. If it is not capable of communication (in some form) then it must be an animal (or plant).
Some species are difficult to categorize entirely. Is it a plant? An Animal? Or is it something else entirely? Life in the universe is not always what we expect it to be. Scientists and astronomers have long searched for signs of life in the universe based upon an expectation that it would assume a form that we expect it to. Could life exist on worlds where the expected conditions for life do not exist at all? Could a vacuum world contain forms of life even though it has no water, air or other aspects that we humans would need to survive there?