What's In John's Freezer?

You behaved very well with the Mystery CT Slices #3; I was not lynched; so I can reward you for your exquisite mercy with another peering into the RVC’s Anatomy Museum. Yay! As promised, I will now present our fabulous collection of pre-dissected, preserved specimens.

Stomach-Churning Rating: 5/10; for dog lovers perhaps 7/10. I suppose I should enact this SCR system for all blog posts now?

First, a view down the main hall of dissected specimens (note nice blue carpet and bright green door? RVC likes colour sometimes.):

Next, some of those specimens, pertaining in particular to cranial appendages of the canine variety, in two adjacent shelving units (click to embiggen— all images in these posts tend to have substantially larger images you can view):

Zooming in on one such canine specimen, emphasizing the jaws and cranial nerves as well as larynx:

Next it would be apropos to reveal the inner anatomy of the jaw muscles (pterygoids!!! trigeminal nerve!) and neck/pharynx/CNS tissues:

And moving on to the upper part of dog necks and their associated muscles, nerves and other tissues that help support the head/larynx:

I would be remiss at this point if I did not show the main nervous system of a dog that runs from the head down to the rump:

Followed by the upper forelimb and lower hind limb dissections of humans’ best friend:

And now any dog lovers can stop panting and take a breather. Go for walkies?

I have horse feet to show instead:

Then I present you with a gorgeous corrosion cast from a mammal whose identity I am not certain of right now (will add later– sheep??) (EDIT: No, pig; a lung “triple cast”):

…and now a specimen that at first glance I thought was some sort of parasite, but the label tells the story (ID pending– cow/horse?from a pig):

Animal Inside Out/Bodyworlds doesn’t hold the monopoly on plastination; we do it too (I must remember to learn how to do this soon!):

Enough musculoskeletal system; I know you all come here for the guts, right? Goat stomach compartments (the reticulum region), as an exemplar of the famed (but inaccurately described) “four-stomach” digestive system of ruminant mammals- not 4 stomachs, but 4 compartments that divide the labour of digestion (including bacterial fermentation):

Bah, enough synapsids! Deep inside, every anatomist might secretly be coveting the dinosaurian digestive tract, here represented by a goose’s guts:

Since we’re really delving into the gooey bits now, how about the reproductive system of a hen, with a perspective across its ontogeny?

Dinosaurs, mammals; get over it! You and me, baby, we ain’t nothing but gnathostomes:

Like fish heads? Try shark brains (nice myosepta also evident here):

Whatever taxon floats your boat, the RVC’s Anatomy Museum has something for you, inside and out! Anyone still with me at this point can probably agree- we all heart anatomy:

Stay tuned for more Mystery CT Slices, museum tours (including a different museum, soon), and even more!