Diatoms - Scientific Art Reproduction - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Reproduction engraving of: Diatoms

Original title Diatomea - Schachtellinge

Triceratium Poster - Plants of the main class of Algae (Class Diatoms)

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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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 of Protophytes (Protophyta)
Algal main class
Class of Diatoms or Bacillariae (siliceous or box-shaped algae).

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Diatomea - Diatomées :

Diatoms, also called bacillaria or diatom algae, are a diverse group of unicellular plants living mainly in fresh and marine waters; more than 2000 species are known. They are distinguished from other protophytes by the formation of a delicate bilateral box-like or valved shell; the two halves or valves of this act as a lid and its bottom. The upper, slightly larger valve, called the epivalve valve, covers with a wide edge, the girdle, the edge of the lower, larger valve, the hypovalve valve. Thus, each valve has two very different appearances: the parallel (horizontal) flat or main face (Fig. 1, 4, 20) and the marginal or secondary, digitate (vertical) face (Fig. 20, 21). The outer surface is often decorated with very fine structures: nodules, ribs, fields, granules, etc. It is crossed by very fine pores. Most diatoms are very small, float freely in the water, and constitute a significant part of the plankton; other species are attached to the bottom by splints. Some species form colonies or aggregates, the gonobia, where daughter cells resulting from divisions remain connected. All the species represented on this plate are isolated living species (monobionts) and free-swimming. Their shells are generally distinguished by a very regular geometric shape: bilateral (Fig. 2, 3, 10), tri-radial (Fig. 1, 4, 22), quadri-radial (Fig. 7, 9, 11), penta-radial (Fig. 5), multi-radial (Fig. 16). The soft, living cell body, enclosed in the shell (Fig. 15), contains a cell nucleus in the center; branched cytoplasmic filaments radiate from the thin layer of protoplasm surrounding it, showing the circulatory movement of the living cell substance. In the cytoplasm are scattered numerous chromatophores or colored granules; their green color (chlorophyll) is often masked by a yellow or brown pigment (diatomine).

Species present on the naturalist board of Diatoms - Triceratium :

• Digital Triceratium
• Navicula lyra
• Navicula excavata
• Triceratium mirificum
• Triceratium pentacrinus
• Actinoptychus constellatus
• Aulacodiscus mammosus
• Navicula wrightii
• Auliscus crucifer
• Biddulphia pulchella
• Auliscus craterifer
• Ausliscus mirabilis
• Aulacodiscus grevilleanus
• Surirella macraeana
• Denticella regia
• Asterolampra eximia
• Actinoptychus heliopelta
• Plagiogramma barbadense
• Pinnularia mülleri
• Biddulphia granulata
• Triceratium pentacrinus
• Triceratium moronense