The incredible life of Maria Sibylla Merian | 91TV
Transcript
- It's hard to imagine but just 300 years ago,
- it was widely believed that insects spontaneously spawned
- from dust, mud or rotten meat.
- Their reproduction was felt to be so strange and frightening,
- they were known as beasts of the devil.
- It's partly thanks to the work of naturalist and illustrator,
- Maria Sibylla Merian,
- that we can now find this idea amusing.
- Today Merian is celebrated as one of the world's first ecologists.
- She is admired by Sir David Attenborough,
- who described her as one of the most significant contributors
- to entomology, the study of insects.
- But she faced many challenges in her journey to educate the world,
- not least because of her sex.
- Born into a family of artists in Frankfurt in 1647,
- Merian spent her childhood collecting insects
- and drawing them in remarkable detail.
- In 1665, she married and soon had two daughters.
- In an age where a woman's place was thought to be in the home,
- she defied convention,
- publishing her first book, New Book of Flowers, in 1675.
- Merian was one of the first to describe
- the metamorphosis of insects in detail,
- declaring that all moths and butterflies
- hatch from eggs after reproduction and do not just magically appear.
- In 1699, Merian, by then divorced,
- sold her belongings and set sail to Suriname in South America
- with one of her daughters, Dorothea.
- She's thought to be the first woman to travel in the name of science.
- After a long sea journey, they set off into the jungle,
- battling through thick clouds of black flies
- that inflicted skin-ripping bites - but it was worth it.
- The jungles of Suriname were a naturalists' paradise,
- teeming with species that would later be documented
- in Merian's groundbreaking work,
- 'The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname', published in 1705.
- Its stunning illustrations depicted stages of development of Suriname's
- veracious caterpillars and vibrant butterflies,
- as well as many other creatures from this exotic habitat.
- Uniquely for the time, she also portrayed insects surrounded
- by the plants they relied on,
- revealing their relationship to the wider ecosystem.
- She was the first to show that the change from caterpillar to butterfly
- depended on a number of plants.
- Though she had planned to stay longer,
- Merian's adventure was cut short by illness
- and after two years she returned to Amsterdam.
- Given the challenges of working in a humid and unfamiliar environment,
- it is remarkable how many species she was able to observe
- and catalogue in that time.
- Her writing is also notable for acknowledging the mistreatment
- of enslaved indigenous and African people
- and their contribution to her research.
- She wrote in her description of the peacock flower,
- 'The Indians, who are not treated well by their Dutch masters,
- use the seeds to abort their children,
- so that they will not become slaves like themselves.'
- Merian suffered a stroke in 1715 that left her unable to work.
- She died two years later, aged 69.
- However, Merian's legacy has endured.
- To date, at least six plants, nine butterflies, two bugs,
- a spider and a lizard, have been named after her.
- Despite being over 300 years old, her work on the biodiversity
- of Suriname is still valued by scientists
- and could show us how some species may adapt to climate change.
Maria Sibylla Merian is considered one of the earliest entomologists and ecologists and has a wide group of admirers, including Sir David Attenborough.
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