Kammerlinge - Aesthetic illustration of the natural world - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Reproduction engraving of: Kammerlinge

Original title Thalamophora - Kammerlinge

Poster of Lagena - Protozoa of the class Thalamophora, Legion of Foraminifera

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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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 Protozoa
Main class Rhizopoda (Rhizopoda)
Class of Foraminifera (Thalamophora)
Legion of perforated walls (Foraminifera or Perforata)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Thalamophora - Kammerlinge :

The Kammerlinge of this plate are related to the Foraminifera illustrated in Plate 2; their delicate calcareous shells are pierced with very many small holes, from which emerge fine, mobile, filament-like pseudopodia (Pseudopodia). These changing plasma forms (shown in Plate 12, Fig. 8) are extensions of the soft living body, which is enclosed in the calcareous shell (see explanations of Plates 2 and 12). The Foraminifera are divided into Monothalamia (Figs. 1—10) and Polythalamia (Figs. 11—22); even the Polythalamia are unilocular when young, but later add new chambers, usually numerous, which remain connected with each other. These are sometimes arranged in a single row (Fig. 20, 21), sometimes in two alternating rows (Fig. 11—14), sometimes in a spiral (Fig. 16—19).

Species present on the Kammerlinge - Lagena naturalist board :

• Lagena formosa
• Lagena auriculata
• Lagena pannosa
• Lagena torquata
• Lagena squamosa
• Lagena milletii
• Lagena walleriana
• Lagena castrensis
• Lagena semistriata
• Lagena plumigera
• Bulimina spinulosa
• Bulimina marginata
• Bolivina durrandii
• Bolivina convallaria
• Uvigerina porrecta
• Truncatulina ungeriana
• Rotalia calcar
• Polystomella imperatrix
• Cristellaria calcar
• Bifarina mackinnonii
• Lingulina Pagoda
• Mimosina hystrix