Ernst Haceckel (1834-1919) was the German scientist who coined the phrase “ontogeny “ recapitulates phylogeny "and the terms “Darwinism” and ecology. He was first to postulate a missing link between ape and man it was proven correct when java man was found in 1891. A staunch evolutionary biologist, Haeckel put Darwin on the world map. His book and monographs, placing Darwin in a board social and philosophical context were circulated internationally they outsold on the Origin of Species by a large margin. Hackel was commonly referred to as the Darwin of Germany.

Haeckel was also an accomplish artist. His idol was Goethe who maintained that arts as well as science could unearth the underlying truths of nature. For both Goethe and Haeckel morphology ha aesthetic roots. Haeckel travelled far and wide, from Sicily to Ceylon to the North Sea, and beyond. The materials he used are sketchpads and watercolours accompanied his microscope wherever he went. His on the spot drawings of deep-sea vegetation, aquatic creatures, frogs, birds and higher animals were turned into more than 1000 engravings from this treasure trove a selection of 100 coloured.

Ernst Haeckel is a philosopher, professor, physician, naturalist, biologist and artist. The pinnacle of his work Art Forms of Nature began to publication in 1899 and still an astonishing record of life on earth. When his art and science combine something is sublime can come to pass.

Haeckel works produced an illustrations that people could be taken in and understand the image that glowed with colour as well as brought the exotic and remote into the libraries of the world. They were the culmination of decades of works for Haeckel a contemporary of Darwin and the work of the English naturalist although their ideas separate out with several important points. The 89th plate from the Art Forms of Nature and shows a variety of turtle species and it is from the leatherback at the top left to the common snapping turtle (bottom right) and he capture them from a marvelously. This was no attempt at photorealism, however how sea and land (seamlessly) merge in the picture.