Antique plate of spiny, star-shaped radiolarian skeletons with lattice centres, drawn in white on a dark charcoal background

Blank inside panel — Inside: four of your photos stand up below this, with your note.

No. 211 of 248 · The Natural History Series

Armoured Radiolarians

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Ernst Haeckel's armoured radiolarians glow white against a dark ground, each spiny glass skeleton a single cell no bigger than a grain of sand. The plate comes from his Art Forms in Nature, where the German zoologist drew sea creatures as symmetrical ornament, work that went on to inspire Art Nouveau. For someone who loves science and the strange beauty of nature.

Add four of your own photos and your own words; we print the card in the US and post it for you.

On the back

From the great natural-history books of the 1700s to the 1900s / Armoured Radiolarians / Acanthophracta / Each of these glass skeletons belongs to a single cell about the size of a grain of sand, yet is built of spines, plates and lattices as exact as a snowflake. / Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature), 1899-1904 / Ernst Haeckel, the German zoologist, drew sea creatures as symmetrical ornament; his plates inspired Art Nouveau.

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