ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY: Today is Both Audubon Day and International Flamingo Day, So Here Is Audubon’s Flamingo!

Since both Audubon Day and International Flamingo Day are celebrated annually on the 26th of April, what better work to spotlight today than John J. Audubon’s famous flamingo print from his magnum opus, The Birds of America… On the 7th of May, 1832, while sailing from Indian Key, one of…

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ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for International Tasmanian Devil Day: Early Natural History Art of the “Bear Opossum”

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Today is not only a #MarsupialMonday, but it’s also the first annual International Tasmanian Devil Day! The Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is an endangered marsupial species endemic to Australia. Although it once ranged across the mainland continent, since its extirpation some 3500 years ago, it is now only found on the…

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ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for Manatee Appreciation Day: Joseph Wolf’s Misidentified Manatee Illustration

Happy Manatee Appreciation Day! As seen above, there are three officially recognized manatee species, all currently listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Today’s Animal Art of the Day is a 19th century illustration which was first identified as one, then identified as another, and finally correctly identified as…

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ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for National Aardvark Week, Part 1: Robert Jacob Gordon’s Aardvarks

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Happy #NationalAardvarkWeek! Besides being one of my favorite mammals, the Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is also the most evolutionarily distinct one, which makes it very special indeed: The aardvark…has the highest score for being the most evolutionarily distinctive (ED) using the EDGE scientific method. Species such as the aardvark are much…

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Happy Newt Year!

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Plates XIII. IX, and X from Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britainby M. C. Cooke (1825-1914)London, W. H. Allen & co., limited, 1893via Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for Wild Koala Day: “Australian Bears and Australian Pears”

Fauna: Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) (Reminder: not really a bear! It’s a marsupial.)Flora: Western Wooden Pear (Xylomelum occidentale) (Also not a true pear.) While Marianne North is primarily known as a pioneering botanical artist of the nineteenth century, many of her paintings include native fauna as well. Her life’s work of…

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ONLINE EXHIBITION: Reading the Book of Nature at the Edward Worth Library and the Zoological Museum, Trinity College Dublin

To mark the quincentenary of the birth of the famed Italian natural historian Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), the Edward Worth Library and the Zoologial Museum of Trinity College Dublin have co-curated a web exhibition called “Reading the Book of Nature,” which juxtaposes images from the Worth Library’s set of Aldrovandi’s natural…

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