In case you missed the story about this paper released just before Xmas, here are some links to stories about “From flat foot to fat foot: Structure, ontogeny, function and evolution of elephant “sixth toes,” in Science, 2011:
1. The paper (free download from my publications list; nice policy, Science!)
2. Our website about the paper (more imagery goodness!)
3. Ed Yong’s first (Nature News) and second (more detailed blog) article
5. Reuters TV‘s excellent video
6. Science Now/Wired’s story
7. Daily Mail‘s story (not a daily fail, in this case)
Clarification: it’s not a real sixth toe in elephants; it’s a false, toe-like structure (“predigit”) made from other tissue. That confusion seeped into some media stories. But this whole story ties into the thorny question of what a digit (finger/toe) is and how we can tell (e.g., notions of homology). Regardless, the elephant predigits are present in all four feet, and are super duper cool!
Most importantly for this blog, that research relied, and still relies, on our fabulous freezers to keep the elephant “toes” in snuggly cold conditions until we wanted to study them.
The research is continuing- I’ll post more about that later. We’ve been doing lots more histology to explore the complex ways that these predigits are formed, and also studying how they function (ex vivo) in more 3D detail than before (with new comparisons to rhino feet). Also, a new paper of ours will come out in J Experimental Biology very soon. It elaborates on how whole elephant feet function, across ontogeny, using in vivo pressure patterns.
What's In John's Freezer? 
[…] legs in such machines quite routinely. We did this for elephant feet to study how the “sixth toe” of elephants works, and we’re analyzing data (as I write) for how elephant feet and […]
[…] you want more elephant anatomy lessons, see the videos from the posting on six-toed elephants. I will proceed assuming some basic familiarity with bones of the feet in animals, although you may […]
Thanks for the post.Really looking forward to read more. Really Great.
Thanks! Check out today’s new post! 🙂
[…] not noted anywhere, even in the book; too bad, these things were widely known by anatomists before my work on them). So much to marvel at here. It is an anatomical treasure. I wish I had a 3D image of it to use for […]
I seaarch the net for a speciofic reason. The reason why I came across your blog. My Research on Rock art and fossils over 12 years , shows that may be elephant (dwarf) could have had 7 toes. Warmest Regards Kenhardt Bushmanland South Africa
Sounds interesting, Kenhardt, I hope you publish your evidence!
[…] fat pad, or digital cushion, akin to that in elephants but far less well developed and lacking the false “sixth toe” (predigit) (see also CT scan movie of the hindfoot […]
[…] just the patella, which is a mysterious structure; a sesamoid bone like I’ve argued elephant predigits are, and probably the best known sesamoid, but still quite enigmatic– especially in non-humans […]
[…] patella is a mysterious structure: a sesamoid bone like I’ve argued elephant predigits are, and probably the best known sesamoid, but still quite enigmatic– especially in non-humans […]
[…] Many mammals have these, and some have expanded them into larger structures like the “sixth toes of elephants” (hence my interest), but precious little is known about their evolution or function in many […]
[…] and clucked chucked in the bin with its tendon when museum specimens of birds are prepared (much as elephant “sixth toe” sesamoids are). All of the specimens had their honking huge patellae on display, so that’s what a lot […]
[…] forward to the 2000′s and I’m studying mammoths, along with their other kin amongst the Proboscidea (elephants and relatives). I even bumped into […]
[…] of my past proboscidean-posts: on elephant foot pathologies (a close sister post to this one), our “six-toed” elephants paper, how to make a computer simulation of an elephant’s limb (umm, paper yet to come!), how we […]