A true pioneer...

Have you noticed today's Google homepage?

Here in Canada, at least, there is a beautiful naturalist doodle to

celebrate the 366th birthday of this woman...

Her name was Anna Maria Sybilla Merian.

Born in Germany in 1647.

Truth be told I had never heard her name although I've probably seen her work

being a lover of botanical and zoological illustrations.

Not only was she a gifted artist documenting for the first time many creatures and their life cycles...

...but who also travelled to far away lands, living amongst the native people and

even advocating for human rights in the slave populations of South America.

Her work was important enough to be quoted many times by known

naturalist Carl Linnaeus, considered the father of zoological classification.

She travelled as a divorced woman, unheard of in her day, with her daughter to these

strange and wild places to seek out what she had been curious about

since she was a girl and to document the natural world around her in great detail.

Her work is a valued addition not only to science but to admirer's of fine

naturalist art...

I have only posted a few of her pieces and only snippets of her fascinating life but

have a look yourself and read about this extraordinary pioneer woman.