Fifteen bat species (Chiroptera) crowd this plate, nearly every one shown face-on in close portrait — a composition choice that turns a taxonomic survey into something closer to a rogues' gallery, each bat's wildly varied nose-leaf and ear structure (evolved for echolocation, though the mechanism wasn't yet understood in Haeckel's time) rendered with the same unflinching precision he gave jellyfish and radiolarians. The full wingspan figure at center anchors the plate, its membrane structure drawn with genuine anatomical seriousness even as the surrounding portrait busts lean gothic and strange. What to notice: this is one of the few Kunstformen der Natur plates printed entirely in grayscale — a choice that, whether intentional or not, only sharpens how unsettling these faces read to eyes unused to bats as a taxonomic subject rather than a folklore one.

Maker: Ernst Haeckel (lithograph by Adolf Giltsch)
Date: 1899–1904
Medium of the original: Lithograph
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00274

As chosen: 12 x 18 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	12 x 18 in
Outside size	13.6 x 19.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 12 in	268	Excellent	Trimmed 7.2%
11 x 14 in	210	Excellent	Trimmed 8.5%
12 x 16 in	192	Good	Trimmed 4.2%
12 x 18 in	178	Good	Trimmed 7.2%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 10 in	Wrong shape: a 10% crop
16 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 10% crop
16 x 24 in	134 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
18 x 24 in	128 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	107 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 10% crop
24 x 36 in	89 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 40 in	77 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	64 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	53 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 2,314 x 3,220 px, srgb
Tone: Darks 42, lights 252 of 255; 0.8% clipped light, 0.5% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 32.37