FORAMINIFERAL ART: FROM HAND DRAWINGS TO PUBLIC SCULPTURES

Foraminifera, a group of mostly microscopic organisms, possess skeletons (tests) that occur in rocks between 545 million years old to modern environments worldwide. They have been critically important in the search and recovery of oil. The large foram Nummulites was first observed by the ancients Herodotus (Greek, 5^th Century BC) and Pliny the Elder (Roman, 23 to 79AD). In the 16^th Century, Agricola, Gesner and Aldrovandi published simple descriptions and woodcut illustrations, but these were vague and crude works that frustrate attempts to know precisely what was seen. In the 19^th Century, many authors published images of forams that they drew by hand. Most important of these men, was Alcide d’Orbigny who, in 1826, published his own images of many foraminifera, both fossil and modern, that he considered tiny cephalopods, and he hand-crafted fist-sized models of forams. He is now considered the “father of micropaleontology” for his careful illustrations and models. Later, English, German, and others published hand-drawn images printed as lithographs, which sometimes were hand colored after printing. Forams had become an important field of study, as Ehrenberg’s (1854) Mikrogeologie illustrated forams among many other microfossils and inorganic objects and Brady’s magnificent Report on the Foraminifera dredged by HMS Challenger with 115 plates illustrating all the forams he found. The general technique of hand-drawing of forams as viewed through a microscope continued with many authors, including Cushman, Earland, Heron-Allen, in the first half of the 20^th Century, ending more or less with the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology’s two-volume set on forams by Loeblich and Tappan in 1964. While hand drawing continued, it was being replaced by scanning electron micrographs of specimens, so that by 1990, almost all foram publications came with SEM images. The beauty and complexity of forams remained unknown by the general public. Dr. Zheng Shouyi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believed everyone should know about forams, so she initiated and oversaw the creation of a Foraminiferal Sculpture Park. Located in Zhongshan City, Guandong, China, it contains 116 sculptures of species in 90 genera the size of a human being, perhaps the ultimate way to show forams. So, the art of forams has progressed far in 450 years.