Maria Sibylla Merian – Opossum “Rat de Forest” plate 66 of Merian’s “Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium”

The Seventeenth-century German artist and natural history illustrator Anna Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717) is best known for her travels and research in Dutch Suriname, South America.  She was one of the first to recognize the metamorphosis of insects.