Multimedia Gallery
"Weedy seadragon life cycle"
"Weedy seadragon life cycle," by Stephanie Rozzo.
During her time volunteering at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, freelance science illustrator Stephanie Rozzo helped clean the seahorse exhibit. Over time, she found herself enchanted by their colors and movements. Rozzo knew she had her next illustration subject when one male began carrying eggs (as males of the species do).
She rendered an expectant pair of seadragons -- native Australian fish closely related to seahorses -- in acrylic paint with their seaweed habitat in graphite. The work depicts the species' life stages from embryonic fry through adulthood.
More about this image
This illustration won experts' choice in the Illustration category of the 2016 Visualization Challenge, now called the Vizzies, a long-running annual competition co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Popular Science magazine. [The competition was formerly named the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (SciVis) and was previously co-sponsored with AAAS' journal Science.] The competition aims to recognize some of the most beautiful visualizations from the worlds of science and engineering, and awards prizes in five categories: photography, video, illustration, posters & graphics and interactives.
To learn more about the competition and view all the winning entries, past and present, see the NSF Special Report The VIZZIES: Visualization Challenge. (Date image taken: 2016; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Jan. 2, 2018)
Credit: Stephanie Rozzo
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