Alien Vegetation Engulfs Human Skull — H.G. Wells War of the Worlds 1906

Martian red weed — the terrifying extraterrestrial plant life unleashed during the Martian invasion of Earth — is depicted consuming a cracked human skull, its tendrils and fronds colonizing bone in a visceral symbol of biological conquest. This pen-and-ink vignette from the 1906 French edition of H.G. Wells' La Guerre des Mondes (The War of the Worlds) captures the alien ecology overrunning human civilization, roots threading through eye sockets and fractures in a haunting memento mori of interplanetary invasion.