Brittle Stars - Scientific Observation Print - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Engraving reproduction of: Ophiures

Original title Ophiodea - Schlangensterne

Poster of Astrophyton - Starfish of the class Ophiura or Ophiuroidea, order Echinoderms (Cladophiura)

Illustration from the book Kunstformen der Natur, which is a collection of artistic lithographs of natural sciences published by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel between 1899 and 1904.

This naturalistic illustration is part of an overall style inspired by Ernst Haeckel, which greatly influenced the emerging Art Nouveau movement at the beginning of the ^20th century. This work, illustrating the impressive beauty and great diversity of the biological world, was complemented by a certain amount of scientific information, some excerpts of which are reproduced below.

This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!

Scientific classification:

 Phylum Echinoderms (Echinoderma)
Main class of Pentorchonia (Pentorchonia)
Class of Brittle Stars (Ophiodea)
Order Cladophora (Cladophiura)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Ophiodea - Ophiures :

The brittle stars shown in this plate still have in part five simple, unbranched arms, similar to those of the Ophiodea illustrated in Plate 10. On the other hand, the remarkable gorgonocephalians (Astrophytida, Figs. 1, 2) are distinguished by the strong branching of their greatly enlarged arms. These five arboreal arms serve for the capture of prey with their innumerable, highly mobile branches and can curl towards the ventral side; they are composed of thousands of articulated elements, similar to the arms of crinoids or sea lilies (Plate 20). The calcified appendages of the skin appear in the form of spines, scales, combs, etc. On the underside of the central disc, which is clearly separated from the five arms, is the pentagonal mouth in the middle, armed with five teeth. In some Astrophytida, however (as in Fig. 1), five mouths are present. Between each pair of arms are two genital slits at the bottom. One of the five mouth shields usually bears the sieve-shaped madreporic plate. In some Astrophytida, five madreporites are present.

Species present on the naturalist plate of Ophiures - Astrophyton :

• Astrophyton darwinium
• Ophiopholis japonica
• Ophiotholia supplicans
• Ophiohelus umbella
• Ophioglypha minuta
• Hemipholis cordifera