
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (Feb 16, 1834 – Aug 9, 1919), also written von Haeckel was a german biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist.
Von Haeckel was one clever fellow he discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in biology, including phylum, phylogeny, ecology and the kingdom Protista.
He even has a mountain here in NZ named after him, Mount Haeckel, a 2,941 m (9,650 ft).
What was really interesting about Von Haeckel tho, was his ability to illustrate the organism’s he was studying. The Most stunning of these illustrations are collated in his seminal publication ‘Kunstformen der Natur‘, which has just been opened up for public consumption over at wiki commons, as the patent has recentley expired.
Click here for some beautiful drawings of ugly things…