Endless Forms Most Beautiful

2011 Darwin Week Art Competition

During this week the art forms were displayed in the glass cases  in "Art Alley" on the second floor of the SIUC Student Center.   Judging took place on Wednesday, February 9, and following a reception that included refreshments, there was an awards ceremony.

First Prize ($100)
Entry #20 Kaua’i Amakihi on Koli’I by Lucas Behnke
The slender, curved neck and pollen-laden stamen of the Koli’i flower (Trematalobelia kauaiensis) is one of the showiest examples of bird-plant co-evolution in the Hawai’ian Archipelago. However evolution and extinction in Hawai’i are inextricably linked, and with the loss of a host of endemic long-billed nectivorous birds from the Island of Kaua’i, the Koli’i now relies only on the native bird to develop resistance to the pressures of introduced avian disease, the Kaua’i Amakihi (Hemignathus kauaiensis).

Second Prize ($50)
Entry #11 Adaptation/Blend by Jonathan Gray
This is a series of digital graphics meant to run in sequence on the provided digital frame. While the specific progression of insect illustrations is not necessarily representative of a specific evolution of form, it is meant to illustrate adaptation over time. The insects merge and blend with their abstract background as a depiction of the role environment plays in evolutionary change. The background (like the environment) also shifts while certain formal elements remain the same.

Third Prize ($25)
Entry #18 Torsalo by Phil Scheibel
This botfly maggot infested the back of a man doing research in the Republic of Panama in 2009. Myiasis (the invasion of living tissue by fly larvae) in humans is often caused by the species Dermatobia hominis. The large female adult botfly captures and attaches her eggs to a less conspicuous blood sucking arthropod, like a mosquito. When the mosquito feeds, the body heat from the host causes the eggs to hatch. The larvae burrow into the skin, where they grow. The maggots stay deeply embedded in the tissue by using rows of backward pointing hooks and two fangs. This close-up of the interior end shows the maggot’s adaptations to a parasitic lifestyle; a lifestyle in which we are intimately involved.

Honorable Mention (books donated by Mike Brown, Manager, Cypress Creek National Wildlife Reserve)
Entry #4 Left feet in lateral view drawn to the same proximal-distal length by Chrystal Nause
This illustration depicts the left feet of Lophocelous albigena, Pan troglodytes, and Homo sapiens.  The piece illustrates adaptation of the calcaneo-cuboid joint in relation to compressive forces associated with alternative forms of locomotion.

Honorable Mention (books donated by Mike Brown, Manager, Cypress Creek National Wildlife Reserve)
Entry #21 Evolution of Liverwort Sperm by Tamrya d’Artenay
Sperm carry genetic material from male to a female and so have evolved the morphology most fit to carry out this function. Liverwort sperm pictured: Scapania nemorea, Porella platyphylla, Bazzania trilobata.