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

Reproduction engraving of: Rotifers

Original title Rotatoria - Rädertiere

Pedalion Poster - Echinoderms of the Medusa or Jellyfish class

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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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 of Vermiform Animals (Vermalia)
Class Rotifera (Rotatoria)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Rotatoria - Rotifers :

Rotifers (Rotatoria) are very small vermidians, generally invisible to the naked eye; only a few species reach a size of 1 to 2 mm. They inhabit mainly fresh water, a few also the sea; many can remain dried out for a long time in a state of apparent death; they only come back to life on contact with water. These Vermalia derive their name from the possession of a peculiar rotatory organ, a mobile disc at the cephalic end of the ovoid or shield-shaped body; the delicate cilia which line the edge of this lobed disc in one or more rows produce by their lively movement a whirlpool of water which serves both for swimming and for attracting food; thus, in many rotifers, particularly when the disc is distinctly bilobed, one has the impression of a pair of turning wheels. Most rotifers thus swim freely in the water; Some also crawl (like caterpillars), by bending, extending, and retracting a jointed outgrowth at the posterior end of the body, called a "foot" (Figs. 6, 7, 8). By means of the two caudal pincers or lobes at its tip, they can also attach themselves temporarily. Some species attach themselves permanently to stones or aquatic plants by means of their foot. In the middle of the transparent body, the intestinal canal is seen, composed of three parts: in front, a pharynx with a pair of mobile chewing teeth; in the middle, the rounded stomach with a pair of lateral hepatic glands (Figs. 3, 8); behind, the straight terminal intestine, with the horseshoe-shaped branches of the ovary on each side (Figs. 3, 4). On the right and left sides of the body are visible a pair of winding canals that open at the rear, the excretory organs or kidneys (nephridia, Fig. 5-8). The hard carapace that encloses the body of many rotifers is composed of chitin and is often decorated with ribs and spikes (Figs. 7, 8).

Species present on the Rotifera - Pedalion naturalist board :

• Pedalion mirum
• Lacinularia socialis
• Polyarthra platyptera
• Pterodina patina
• Stephanoceros eichhornii
• Euchlanis dilatata
• Noteus leydigii
• Brachionus bakeri