Discoid radiolarians - Reproduction of 19th century engraving - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Engraving reproduction of: Discoid Radiolarians

Original title Discoidea - Scheiben-Strahlinge

Poster of Heliodiscus - Vertebrates of the class Radiolaria (Spumellaria 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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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)
Order Spumellaria or Shelled Radiolaria (Spumellaria)
Group of discoid radiolarians (Discoidea).

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Discoidea - Discoid Radiolarians :

The Radiolaria in this plate all belong to the legion Spumellaria, where hundreds or thousands of fine pseudopodia (plasma filaments) radiate from the single-celled body and emerge through countless small pores evenly distributed over the central capsule (Figs. 5, 6, 8, and 9). The latter is colored red here, while the enveloping membrane (Calymma) is yellow. Their delicate skeleton, called "moss stars," comprises a very fine network of silica filaments, similar to a delicate filigree. In the order Discoidea, to which the forms shown here belong, the initial form of skeletal construction is always a free, biconvex disc; from this, radial arms, wings, or spines of very different size, shape, and number emerge. All these extensions are located in the equatorial plane of the central axis; they serve as propulsive sails and swimming apparatus, preventing the small creatures from submerging. Most Discoidea are so small that they are invisible to the naked eye or appear simply as tiny dots; they live in their billions suspended on the surface and at various depths of the sea.

Species present on the naturalist plate of Discoid Radiolaria - Heliodiscus :

• Histiastrum boseanum
• Stephanasrum quadratum
• Dicranastrum furcatum
• Rhopalastrum trispinosum
• Chitonastum lyra
• Euchitonia carcinus
• Myelastrum dodecaceros
• Myelastrum papilio
• Pentinastrum asteriscus
• Hexinastrum geryonidum
• Heliodrymus dendrocyclus
• Heliodiscus glyphodon