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Ernst Haeckel was one of the great biologists of the 19th century, and he contributed greatly to the study of protozoan diversity. His Kunstformen der Natur is one of the great classics of natural history, and is his celebration of the beauty of organization of organisms both microbial and macrobial. Ernst Haeckel has a reputation for improving on what he saw. He contributed to von Baer's concepts that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny by showing similarities in comparable developmental stages in embryos of different vertebrates. However, his contributions are undermined because he embellished his observations to over-emphasize similarities. His tendency to stylize is evident in many of the drawings from this book. The Book 'Kunstforme der Natur' was published in 1904. Digital images are available through virtual library of Kurt Stueber. The plates have been reprinted in several volumes, such as the Dover Pictorial Archive - Haeckel, E. (1974) Art Forms in Nature (ISBN 0-486-22987-4); or the more informative (and colour) 1998 volume from Prestel (ISBN 3 7913 1990 6) with the same author and title. Image from the cover of the book. Image in public domain.
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