Feathery Corals - 19th Century Engraving Reproduction - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Reproduction engraving of: Plumose Corals

Original title Pennatulida - Feathery Corals

Poster of Pennatula - Cnidarians of the class Corals (Order Gorgona)

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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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

 Cnidarian Phylum (Cnidaria)
Class Anthozoa (Anthozoa)
Order Octocorallia (Octocoralla)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Pennatulida - Feathery corals :

The family Pennatulida forms a distinct group within the order of eight-rayed corals (Octocoralla). All corals in this family form symmetrical stalks or colonies, on which numerous flower-like polyps are arranged along a common stalk. Most species are large and brightly colored. The common body stalk (corm) contains a horny axis and is anchored to the seabed by its lower end. The individual polyps, with a crown of eight branching tentacles at the mouth, are regularly arranged in a feather or cluster shape along the stalk.

Species present on the naturalist board of Feathery Corals - Pennatula :

• Umbellula encrinus
• Stylatula finmarchica
• Virgularia leuckarti
• Renilla reniformis
• Stylatula elegans
• Stylatula kinbergii
• Virgularia glacialis
• Virgularia rumphii
• Virgularia mirabilis
• Pennatula spinosa