tsalerl ase noli
Unscramble the letters above. Reveal the name of the animal and then see if you can spot it or them! The photo is a view of Resurrection Bay, from Seward Alaska (1).
The creature, in this eye spy challenge, is named after Georg Wilhelm Stellar, a German botanist, zoologist, and explorer. He was an ardent explorer. For instance, in the 18th century, he accompanied Vitus Bering’s expedition to the Aleutian Islands (2). During this time, Stellar documented in great detail what he observed. His illustrations are excellent and reveal an understanding of skeletal structure.
In 1751, the St. Petersburg Academy posthumously published De Bestiis Marinis (The Beasts of the Sea) under Stellar’s name (2). Here is his illustration of the now extinct stellar sea cow. (3) Fun fact: Stellar estimated it’s weight to be in the order of 10 metric tonnes. To put that into perspective, that would be about five male asian elephants! Huge, right?
References and credits
- Photo credit: Rosemary Aviste, Edge on Science Advisory Board Member
- https://hekint.org/2023/02/02/stellers-sea-eagle-who-was-georg-wilhelm-steller/
- Steller, Georg Wilhelm; Miller, Walter (Translator); Miller, Jennie Emerson (Translator); and Royster, Paul
(Transcriber and editor), “De Bestiis Marinis, or, The Beasts of the Sea (1751)” (1751). Faculty
Publications, UNL Libraries. 17.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/17
