haeckel

[jojojojoanne]

what is the etymology/classification of the eight lacertilia lizards which are depicted on the 79th lithographic plate from Ernst Haeckels kunstformen der natur?(1904)what is the significance of new sub orders and infra orders in recent classifications?and why did Adolf Glitsch choose to work directly from Haeckels sketches rather than from first hand specimens?

[jno]

tut, I only have plates 1 to 78; my subscription ran out after that. And although I wrote to Glitsch asking him that very question, the bounder never replied.

[kempie]

http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/haec kel/kunstformen/Tafel_079.html

[dundurn]

To answer the second half of your question - Glitsch didn't work from first hand specimens because he didn't have them. The lizards in question come from North and South America, Africa, Australia and Java so he wasn't going to travel that far for one engraving when he had sketches to work from. Unfortunately Haeckel, his source for the sketches, never travelled that far either and there is evidence that he worked (in part at least) from other peoples' work rather than from specimens.