Maria Sibylla Merian

German naturalist and artist (1647–1717)

Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717) was a German-Dutch entomologist, naturalist, and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to document observations about insects directly; her work established that insects have a life cycle and do not appear by spontaneous generation. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Merian family.

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