Polycite radiolarians - Decorative encyclopedic plate - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Engraving reproduction of: Polycitarian Radiolarians

Original title Polycyttaria - Vereins-Strahlinge

Poster of Collosphaera - Protozoa of the Radiolaria family (Phaeodarian 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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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)
Order Polycyttaria

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Polycyttaria - Polycytarian Radiolaria :

The small order of "colonial radiolarians" or "social radiolarians," grouped in systematics under the name Polycyttaria, is distinguished from other protozoa of this class by their tendency to associate. While the vast majority of radiolarians are represented by "solitary cells" living in isolation (Eremobia, Plates 1, 11, 21, 31, 41), the Polycyttaria, on the other hand, form permanent cell associations (coenobia). The numerous social cells that constitute such an association or "cell colony" each have their own central capsule, surrounded by a solid membrane, in the center of which is the cell nucleus (replaced in old age by a ball of fat). On the other hand, the soft calymma, the gelatinous envelope in which the central capsules are embedded, is common to all; Often the gelatin is filled with water bubbles or vacuoles, and sometimes a larger spherical central bubble is distinguished by special features (Fig. 12). The countless plasma filaments radiating from the individual central capsules branch out and connect inside the calymma to form a dense network; on the surface, however, they radiate as fine radial tentacles. Numerous yellow cells, scattered in the calymma between the capsules, do not belong to the colony itself, but are unicellular plants (algae) of the genus Xanthella; they live in symbiosis with radiolarians (association for mutual benefit; Figs. 2, 10, 11, 12). The Polycyttaria belong (because of the structure of their central capsule) to the legion Spumellaria and form a separate order within this legion. This order comprises three families: I. Collozoida, which do not form a siliceous skeleton; II. Sphaerozoida with a siliceous skeleton composed of numerous individual needle-like siliceous pieces, loosely dispersed and unbound in the calymma (Fig. 2-5); III. Collosphaerida, in which each individual central capsule is surrounded by a reticulated siliceous shell (Fig. 6-12).

Species present on the naturalist plate of Polycitarian Radiolaria - Collosphaera :

• Collosphaera primoridalis
• Thalassoxanthium medusinum
• Sphaerozoum ivodimare
• Thalassoxanthium cervicorne
• Spaherozoum spinosissimum
• Coronophaera diadema
• Trypnophaera trepanata
• Acrosphaera inflata
• Mazosphaera lagotis
• Caminosphaera dendrophora
• Coronosphaera calycina
• Solenosphaera familiaris