Friday 21 May 2021

Ernst Haekel - part 3

Ernst Heinrich Haekel (1834-1919), a German physician, biologist and nature philosopher. Guided by his father into the practice of medicine, he soon forsook this early career to follow a path more to his liking. In 1862 he began his academic career as a biologist and professor of zoology at the University in Jena where he taught and conducted research until 1909.

During his tenure at Jena, he devoted time to traveling as a field naturalist, collecting specimens along the way. He is noted for his discovery of radiolarian, a type of amoeboid protozoa that produces intricate mineral skeletons found as plankton throughout the ocean. These oceanic organisms are reflected in diverse forms that are strikingly beautiful, almost like the snowflakes of the sea. Notably, he also coined the terms “phylum” and “ecology.”

Haekel's academic and literary output was enormous, and by the time he was 60, he had produced 42 works of over 13,000 pages, including numerous scientific memoirs. 
He was a flamboyant & controversial character who espoused Lamarckian rather than Darwinian concepts, though he did contribute to the popularisation of Darwin’s work in Germany. Something of a maverick in the scientific world, many of his drawings are closer to art than reality, as he was not above inventing creatures to substantiate his theories.


This is part 3 of a 3 part series on the works of Ernst Haeckel.

1899 Kunstformen der Natur part 2:


Plate 51 Polycyttaria

Plate 52 Filicinae

Plate 53 Prosobranchia

Plate 54 Gamochonia

Plate 55 Acephala

Plate 56 Copepoda

Plate 57 Cirripedia

Plate 58 Tineida

Plate 59 Siphonophorae

Plate 60 Echinidea

Plate 61 Phaeodaria

Plate 62 Nepenthaceae

Plate 63 Basimycetes

Plate 64 Siphoneae

Plate 65 Florideae

Plate 66 Arachnida

Plate 67 Chiroptera

Plate 68 Batrachia

Plate 69 Hexacoralla

Plate 70 Ophiodea

Plate 71 Stephoidea

Plate 72 Muscinae

Plate 73 Ascomycetes

Plate 74 Orchidae

Plate 75 Platodes

Plate 76 Thoracostraca

Plate 77 Siphonophorae

Plate 78 Cubomedusae

Plate 79 Lacertilia

Plate 80 Blastoïdea

Plate 81 Thalamophora

Plate 82 Hepaticae

Plate 83 Lichenes

Plate 84 Diatomea

Plate 85 Ascidiae

Plate 86 Decapoda

Plate 87 Teleostei

Plate 88 Discomedusae

Plate 89 Chelonia

Plate 90 Cystoidea

Plate 91 Spumellaria

Plate 92 Filicinae

Plate 93 Mycetozoa

Plate 94 Coniferae

Plate 95 Amphoridea

Plate 96 Chaetopoda

Plate 97 Spirobranchia

Plate 98 Discomedusae

Plate 99 Trochilidae

Plate 100 Antilopina