Spiroides - Illustrated drawing from life - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Reproduction engraving of: Spiroides

Original title Spyroidea - Nüßchenstrahlinge

Poster of Elaphospyris - Protozoa of the main class Radiolaria (Nassellarian 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This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!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 Spiroides (Spyroidea).

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Spyroidea - Spiroides :

The figures in this plate represent the cleaned siliceous skeletons of Spyroidea, a particular order of the rich legion of Basket Radiolaria or Nassellaria. The skeleton of these small Radiolaria, which appear to the naked eye only as a small dot, forms a beautiful bilaterally shaped lattice-like shell, composed of two lateral halves, separated by a central constriction (figs. 1, 9, 13) or by a vertical ring (figs. 6, 8, 11), similar to the two halves of a walnut. The living soft body, which lies inside this shell and generally contains a rounded, conical, or walnut-shaped central capsule, is not shown in this plate, nor are the numerous fine plasma filaments (pseudopodia) radiating from it (see plates 11 and 21). The latticed siliceous shell of most Spyroidea is equipped with spines or wing-like appendages, which serve partly as defensive weapons, partly as flotation devices, and also as supports for the pseudopodia. At the top of many shells stands an apical horn or spine (Figs. 6, 8, 11), often accompanied by two lateral spines (Figs. 1, 7, 12). At the bottom is the shell opening, from which mainly the pseudopodia emerge, often equipped with two long lateral spines or feet (Figs. 1, 5, 11) or surrounded by a crown of leaves or spines (Figs. 4, 6, 7, 8).

Species present on the Spiroides - Elaphospyris naturalist board :

• Triceraspyris gazella
• Clathrospyris pyramidalis
• Pylospyris canariensis
• Anthospyris mammilata
• Dendrospyris polyrrhiza
• Sepalospyris pagoda
• Elaphospyris cervicornis
• Tholospyris cupola
• Dictyospyris stalactites
• Dictyospyris anthophora
• Dorcadospyris dinoceras
• Triceraspyris damaecornis
• Ceratospyris strasburgeri