loynosca:Today is World Sea Turtle Day! In celebration, we share some images from Special Collection
loynosca:Today is World Sea Turtle Day! In celebration, we share some images from Special Collections & Archives’ copy of Louis Agassiz’s Contributions to the natural history of the United States of America Volume II Part III, “Embryology of the turtle.” The top image includes one of the sea turtles native to the United States, the loggerhead sea turtle (no. 13-32), as well as several freshwater softshell turtles (no. 1-7), a painted turtle (no. 8-9), and a musk turtle (no. 10-12). Several illustrators worked with Agassiz on “Embryology of the turtle:” Jacques Burkhardt, Henry James Clark, and Auguste Sonrel.While Agassiz’s legacy includes endorsement of the theory of polygenism, a form of scientific racism, in his early career he was a well recognized biologist and geologist. The four volumes of Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America were published from 1857-1862 and detail the zoology of American turtles and jellyfish. The compendium was meant to eventually include ten volumes but was never finished.The remainder of the images pictured from “Embryology of the turtle” are of both freshwater turtles and their eggs and embryos.Happy day, world sea turtles! Do you like turtles? -- source link