See 500 Years of Artful Nature Illustrations
It’s always fascinating to see how nature was depicted in art through the ages, especially before the dawn of photography. Via Atlas Obscura.
The number of species on Earth is likely unknowable: There are simply too many hiding places for plants and critters, and the human gaze is too narrow and unfocused to look under every stone. Yet cataloguing the planet’s rich biodiversity has been a focus of the human mind for centuries. From Carl Linnaeus to John James Audubon, taxonomizing and documenting species have become lifelong pursuits. The unceasing desire to understand life more, and better, has kept the ball of discovery and categorization rolling for centuries.