Science & Society

Historical art can hide scientific secrets

From bats eating birds to butterfly behavior, art can contain ecological clues

Historical botanical illustration by Maria Sibylla Merian showing two caterpillars crawling on the leaves of a plant with a large pink flower.

Artworks from the past, like this one from the 1690s by Maria Sibylla Merian, can give modern scientists insights into animal behaviors and relationships.

Maria Sibylla Merian

By Bethany Brookshire

In the upper right corner of his 1611 painting “Air,” Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Elder drew a bat holding a songbird in its jaws. While the painting might have been an allegory, the bat’s behavior was real — though scientists would not officially observe the behavior for another 400 years.