I’ve been a huge fan of this type of scientific illustration for a while, and today i finally immersed myself into the history of one of the artists: Ernst Haeckel.  The organisms are living abstract art, and Ernst’s level of detail and color palette are just amazing. What is also amazing is these drawings were done over a century ago, and Ernst wasn’t just a prolific artist, he was also a biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, and professor; who also discovered thousands of new species and contributed heavily to the genealogical tree. Find out more on wikipedia.

More of Ernst’s art can be found on Nick Derington’s flickr, thanks Nick for compiling all these images.