{
  "abstract": "In 1859, Darwin’s Origin of the Species provoked a revolution in biology, providing an explanation for the tremendous diversity of life forms. However, it had no explanation of how life originated on earth, nor discussion of a primordial life form that would give rise to existing life forms. Two of Darwin’s most devoted followers, Thomas Huxley and Ernst Haeckel, believed a solution had been found in the form Huxley’s discovery in 1868 of a microorganism he christened, Bathybius Haeckelii. It was a featureless gelatinous masse, covering the floor of the deep sea, according to Huxley, and plausibly formed by spontaneous generation, according to Haeckel. Although widely heralded, it was short-lived as gelatinous masses found in samples of deep-sea mud were found to be an artifact of sample preservation in 1875. Here the view put forward is that Bathybius was accepted, if only for a few years, not only because it filled a perceived lack in Darwin’s theory, but also due in large part to Haeckel’s illustrations of Bathybius as life-like creature, shown here through a pictorial biography of Bathybius.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
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  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "John R Dolan"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1nc9cbgx02ghw.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.21494/iste.op.2026.1501",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "1nc9cbgx02ghw",
  "issns": [
    "2515-8767"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05837804v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
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  "openalex": "W7223356134",
  "pdf_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05837804/document",
  "pmcid": null,
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  "published": "2026-10-23",
  "publisher": "ISTE OpenScience",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1nc9cbgx02ghw.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:01Z",
      "native_id": "hal-05837804",
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      "url": "https://hal.science/hal-05837804v1"
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  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "hal:1.sdv.mp",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A pictorial biography of Bathybius haeckelii, the short-lived primordial life form of the deep sea",
  "title_text": "A pictorial biography of Bathybius haeckelii, the short-lived primordial life form of the deep sea",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:01Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1nc9cbgx02ghw",
  "venue": "Arts et sciences",
  "versions": []
}