Francesco Maria Soldini, De anima brutorum commentaria curiosum nobij natura ingenium dedit ..., Firenze, 1776
Soldini's publication undermines the belief of cognitive superiority of man over animals. The eight engraved plates that enrich the edition depict marine animals, particularly shellfish, when they colonize land.
This representation is inspired by the Frenchman Benoit de Maillet's theory (1656-1738) who, in his work Telliamed (the title being his name written in the opposite direction), reports his Neptunian theory of the earth: the globe had once been covered with water that had gradually retreated. And life originated in water through tiny seeds that had generated all aquatic forms from which one should trace all those terrestrial beings and then those with wings. Each plant or animal, including humans, would, in essence, have a corresponding aquatic form.