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Description
I got to illustrate a freshly published book about soil ecology and the amazing variety of creatures that live beneath our feet. The book is published by the Finnish publisher Gaudeamus and called Elämää maaperän kätköissä ("Life hidden in the soil"). It was lovely to be able to work with experts of each taxon to depict them as anatomically correct and lifelike as reasonably possible for such tiny creatures.

Here's a few of the smaller creatures, the ones that require a microscope to be even noticed, let alone appreciated. The top image depicts a selection of the so-called protists, meaning any and all eukaryotes that are not animals, plants or fungi. From let to right, they are a shelled amoeba (Diffugia), a ciliate (Paramecium), a classic amoeba, and a "flagellate" (Bodo saltans). In the middle illustration, there's a nematode worm (Wilsonema) with a formidable set of jaws. Luckily the animal is tiny and uses its mouth apparatus to hunt bacteria. Bottom illustration depicts a rotifer, or wheel animal (Abrochtha intermedia), using a complex structure called a corona to shift the surrounding water for tasty morsels.

I'll post more of these guys later!

Description
I got to illustrate a freshly published book about soil ecology and the amazing variety of creatures that live beneath our feet. The book is published by the Finnish publisher Gaudeamus and called Elämää maaperän kätköissä ("Life hidden in the soil"). It was lovely to be able to work with experts of each taxon to depict them as anatomically correct and lifelike as reasonably possible for such tiny creatures.

Here's a few of the smaller creatures, the ones that require a microscope to be even noticed, let alone appreciated. The top image depicts a selection of the so-called protists, meaning any and all eukaryotes that are not animals, plants or fungi. From let to right, they are a shelled amoeba (Diffugia), a ciliate (Paramecium), a classic amoeba, and a "flagellate" (Bodo saltans). In the middle illustration, there's a nematode worm (Wilsonema) with a formidable set of jaws. Luckily the animal is tiny and uses its mouth apparatus to hunt bacteria. Bottom illustration depicts a rotifer, or wheel animal (Abrochtha intermedia), using a complex structure called a corona to shift the surrounding water for tasty morsels.

I'll post more of these guys later!