November 3rd is World Jellyfish Day!
The common name Jellyfish, aka sea jellies or simply jellies, generally refers to the medusa stage of the life cycle of many Medusozoa.
To celebrate, here is a dozen of Ernst Haeckel‘s “medusae” plates from Kunstformen der Natur [Art Forms in Nature] (1899-1904) as well as the cover art that features a bonus one.
PS- some of these are now classified as hydrozoan cousins rather than “true” jellyfish, but since that’s not a precise taxonomic term to begin with, let’s enjoy them today anyway. 🙂
Images of plates 8, 16, 18, 26, 28, 36, 38, 46, 48, 78, 88, 98 via Internet Archive.
Digital scan of the entire book including text available via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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