{"id":31728,"date":"2025-02-16T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/?p=31728"},"modified":"2025-03-02T20:03:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T01:03:22","slug":"illustrated-guides-of-microscopic-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/2025\/02\/16\/illustrated-guides-of-microscopic-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Illustrated Guides of Microscopic Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have the poster “The History of Existing Life” hanging on one of our walls.<\/a> <\/span>The print is a visual of all life\u2019s evolutionary history and is beautifully drawn<\/a> in the antique style of 18th and 19th century naturalists.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yup, we’re on it, but you have to look hard to find us.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to <\/span>the poster<\/a> (and current scientific understanding), <\/span>microorganisms<\/a> first appeared on Earth approximately 3.7 billion years ago. Evidence for this comes from fossilized microbial mats and carbon signatures found in rocks from this period.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

There’s so many more of “them” than us…<\/p><\/div>\n

Illustrated Guides<\/h2>\n

Last year, while participating in a conversation in a Facebook microscopy group, one of the members pointed us to David Seamer<\/a>. David has been fascinated by the freshwater micro-world since the age of fifteen and has spent his life exploring it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1993, David converted an ex-school bus into a mobile home\/laboratory and spent the next 25-years traveling around southeast Australia, cataloguing the biodiversity of Australia\u2019s freshwater algae and protozoa. The guides (there are seven!) are his ever-evolving work<\/a> on the fascinating topic of “fresh water microscopic life.”<\/p>\n

All of the illustrations<\/a> are hand-drawn by David from live microscopic observations. The guides cover hundreds<\/em> of organisms, with detailed descriptions, helpful taxonomic info.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

“That one goes in this guide, that other one goes in that guide. Obviously.”<\/p><\/div>\n