The first illustrations of diatoms are found in an article from 1703 in Transactions of the Royal Society showing unmistakable drawings of Tabellaria. Although the publication was authored by an unnamed English gentleman, there is recent evidence that he was Charles King of Staffordshire. The first formally identified diatom, the colonial Bacillaria paxillifera, was discovered and described in 1783 by Danish naturalist Otto Friedrich Müller. Like many others after him, he wrongly thought that it was an animal due to its ability to move. Even Charles Darwin saw diatom remains in dust whilst in the Cape Verde Islands, although he was not sure what they were. It was only later that they were identified for him as siliceous polygastrics. The infusoria that Darwin later noted in the face paint of Fueguinos, native inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego in the southern end of South America, were later identified in the same way. During his lifetime, the siliceous polygastrics were clarified as belonging to the Diatomaceae, and Darwin struggled to understand the reasons underpinning their beauty. He exchanged opinions with the noted cryptogamist G. H. K. Thwaites on the topic. In the fourth edition of On the Origin of Species, he wrote, "Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceae: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the high powers of the microscope?" and reasoned that their exquisite morphologies must have functional underpinnings rather than having been created purely for humans to admire.
The first illustrations of diatoms are found in an article from 1703 in Transactions of the Royal Society showing unmistakable drawings of Tabellaria. Although the publication was authored by an unnamed English gentleman, there is recent evidence that he was Charles King of Staffordshire. The first formally identified diatom, the colonial Bacillaria paxillifera was discovered and described in 1783 by Danish naturalist Otto Friedrich Müller. Like many others after him, he wrongly thought that it was an animal due to its ability to move. Even Charles Darwin saw diatom remains in dust whilst in the Cape Verde Islands, although he was not sure what they were. It was only later that they were identified for him as siliceous polygastrics. The infusoria that Darwin later noted in the face paint of Fueguinos, native inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego in the southern end of South America, were later identified in the same way. During his lifetime, the siliceous polygastrics were clarified as belonging to the Diatomaceae, and Darwin struggled to understand the reasons underpinning their beauty. He exchanged opinions with the noted cryptogamist G H. K. Thwaites on the topic. In the fourth edition of On the Origin of Species, he wrote, "Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceae: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the high powers of the microscope?" and reasoned that their exquisite morphologies must have functional underpinnings rather than having been created purely for humans to admire.