Ringed radiolarians - Illustrated drawing from life - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Engraving reproduction of: Ringed Radiolaria

Original title Stephoidea - Ringelstrahlinge

Poster of Tympanidium - Protozoa of the class Radiolaria (Nassellaria Legion)

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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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 Radiolaria (Radiolaria)
Nacellaria Legion or Monopyleen (Nassellaria)
Order of Ringed Radiolaria (Stephoidea)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Stephoidea - Ringed Radiolaria :

The diverse order of Ringed Radiolaria (Stephoidea) is closely related to that of the Nut-shaped Radiolaria (Spyroidea, Plate 22) and the Bottle-shaped Radiolaria (Cyrtoidea, Plate 31). As in all Nassellaria, their central capsule is distinguished by a special basal cone (Podoconus) located below the cell nucleus (Figs. 1, 10 and 11) and possessing a porous field for the exit of innumerable fine plasma filaments (pseudopodia). The latter construct a siliceous skeleton of very elegant and varied shape. Its base is formed by the calymma, a clear gelatinous envelope that surrounds the central capsule and is traversed by the pseudopodia. In most Radiolaria, numerous yellow cells are scattered throughout the calymma (Figs. 1 and 10); These do not belong to the organism itself, but are unicellular plants (algae) of the genus Xanthella; they multiply independently by division and form a mutually advantageous association with the Radiolaria (symbiosis; see Plate 51, Figs. 2, 10, 11 and 12). The order Stephoidea includes four different families. In the Stephanidae or "Crown Radiolaria" (Fig. 1), the most essential part of the siliceous skeleton is a simple vertical ring (sagittal ring). In the Semantidae or "Seal Radiolaria" (Fig. 2), a second horizontal ring is added, connected to the base of the first (similar to the plate of a seal ring). The Coronidae or "Crown Radiolaria" (Fig. 3-5) have three rings located in three planes perpendicular to each other. Finally, the Tympanidae or "Drum-shaped Radiolaria" (Fig. 6-13) are characterized by the possession of two horizontal rings connected by one or more vertical rings.

Species present on the naturalist plate of Ringed Radiolaria - Tympanidium :

• Lithocircus magnificus
• Semantis sigillum
• Acanthodesmia corona
• Tristephanium dimensivum
• Trissocyclus sphaeridium
• Octotympanum cervicorne
• Microcubus zonarius
• Tympaniscus tripodiscus
• Tympanicus quadrupes
• Tympanidium foliosum
• Lithotympanum tuberosum
• Circotympanum octogonium
• Lithocubus astragalus