{"id":12307,"date":"2026-01-26T20:36:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T00:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/stunning-sensual-illustrations-from-the-worlds-first-encyclopedia-of-octopus-and-squid-wonders-from-the-ocean-depths-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T20:36:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T00:36:56","slug":"stunning-sensual-illustrations-from-the-worlds-first-encyclopedia-of-octopus-and-squid-wonders-from-the-ocean-depths-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/stunning-sensual-illustrations-from-the-worlds-first-encyclopedia-of-octopus-and-squid-wonders-from-the-ocean-depths-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"Stunning, Sensual Illustrations from the World\u2019s First Encyclopedia of Octopus and Squid Wonders from the Ocean Depths \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile stroking an octopus, it is easy to fall into reverie,\u201d naturalist Sy Montgomery wrote in her breathtaking inquiry into how Earth\u2019s most alien creature illuminates the wonders of consciousness<\/a>. \u201cTo share such a moment of deep tranquility with another being, especially one as different from us as the octopus, is a humbling privilege\u2026 an uplink to universal consciousness.\u201d <\/p>\n

A century before her, and decades before the great marine biologist, conservation pioneer, and poetic science writer Rachel Carson invited the popular imagination undersea for the first time<\/a> through the valve of science \u2014 the fathoming that gave rise to the environmental movement<\/a> \u2014 the German marine biologist Carl Chun<\/strong> (October 1, 1852\u2013April 11, 1914) led a pioneering deep-sea expedition that upended, with the most spectacular findings, the long-held belief that life could not exist below 300 fathoms. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Velodona togata<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Velodona togata<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the summer of 1898, Chun and his team embarked on what became known as the Valdivia<\/em> expedition, plunging below 500 fathoms \u2014 depths the British-led Challenger<\/em> expedition, which had laid the foundation of oceanography a quarter century earlier, had failed to reach \u2014 and emerging eight months later with marvels beyond the wildest human imaginings and the most daring scientific speculations, creatures too strange and otherworldly even for Jules Verne\u2019s fantastical worlds: cosmoses of bioluminescent fish, swimmers navigating the inky blackness of the depths with senses other than sight, fleshy pulsating supernovae of crimson, gilled and frilled and tentacled wonders that seemed to belong to the \u201cother spheres\u201d Whitman imagined when he contemplated \u201cthe world below the brine.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

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Polypus levis<\/em> Hoyle, male. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chun spent the remainder of his life bringing the world\u2019s awed attention to the unfathomed wonderland he had discovered, in twenty-four rigorously detailed volumes, some featuring arresting, almost erotic illustrations by the artist Friedrich Wilhelm Winter \u2014 none more arresting than those found in the 1910 treasure Cephalopod Atlas<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, a surviving copy of which has been digitized by the wonderful Biodiversity Library. <\/p>\n

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Vampyroteothis infernalis<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among Winter\u2019s stunning, sensual illustrations \u2014 which I have restored and made available as prints, benefiting Greenpeace<\/a> and their inspired endeavor to protect the increasingly human-savaged habitats of these living wonders \u2014 is one of a creature Chun was the first to describe: a small, black cephalopod with branchial hearts and a light gonad that appears to shine just above its stomach. He named it Vampyroteuthis infernalis<\/em>, \u201cvampire squid from hell.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Abraliopsis morisii<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Abraliopsis morisii<\/em> V\u00e9r. Male and juvenile stages. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Abraliopsis morisii<\/em> V\u00e9r. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Pyroteuthis margaritifera<\/em> V\u00e9r. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bolitaena diaphana<\/em> Steenstr. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Rossia mastigophora<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Organs of Pterygioteuthis<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Thaumatolampas diadema<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Organs of Thaumatolampas diadema<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Calitheuthis, Histiotheuthis<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Histiotheuthis, Calitheuthis<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mastigoteuthis glaukopis<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Chiroteuthis<\/em>. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cirruthauma murrayi<\/em> Chun. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Opisthoteuthis<\/em> Verrill. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Opisthoteuthis<\/em> Verrill. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Benthoteuthis megalops<\/em> Verrill. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Eledonella pygmaea<\/em> Verr. Available as a print<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Complement with an animated primer on what makes the octopus consciousness so extraordinary<\/a> and a little boy\u2019s disarming case against eating octopuses<\/a> (I\u2019ll take the PSA opportunity here to remind folks that \u201coctopus\u201d comes from Greek, not from Latin; the correct plural is therefore \u201coctopuses,\u201d not \u201coctopi\u201d), then revisit British artist Sarah Stone\u2019s trailblazing natural history paintings of exotic and endangered species<\/a> from the previous century, French artist Paul Sougy\u2019s vintage scientific diagrams of plants and animals<\/a> from the following century, and Sy Montgomery\u2019s lovely contemporary meditation on how to be a good creature<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Profit<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhile stroking an octopus, it is easy to fall into reverie,\u201d naturalist Sy Montgomery wrote in her breathtaking inquiry into how Earth\u2019s most alien creature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}