One for the weekend morning crowd here. The early bird gets the… cadaver?
At last I’ve managed to pore thru my photos and find something that works for a Mystery Dissection image, so without further adieu here it is! Answer will come tomorrow (Monday) night.
What is the largest structure evident (i.e. what is the picture mainly featuring) and from what group of organisms (be as specific as you can).
Remember, we have a scoreboard now, and rules for scoring. See here. Regular points for this round– Xmas is over, folks!
To recap, Mark Robinson is in the lead w/14pts, tied w/Filippo, but with Heinrich and RH close behind at 12 pts, followed by the 5-person Gang of Awesomeness at 7 pts.
Stomach-Churning Rating: 7– gooey ripeness.
Difficulty: Hmm, no comment.
Go! May Maytag be with you.
What's In John's Freezer? 
I see vocal cords.
So it must be a mammal. Haven’t a clue about the scale.
Glenoid fossa in mid image, dorsal and ventral scapular borders going to upper left and right and medial aspect of scapula to upper middle. But I don’t see any hints as to taxonomy. Or else it’s a weird acetabulum / ischium / ilium of something I don’t recognise.
oops. I should react when distracted all the time. You are right, Michael.
What the hell, let’s live dangerously… is it a crocodylian pelvis (anterior to left), with obvious view of acetabulum, ilium dorsal to it, pubis to lower left? So, to be as specific as possible, let’s go with _Alligator mississippiensis_.
Distal and lateral view of scapula and surrounding muscles and other structures. Species: hippo ?
I agree with Darren … except the image appears to be upside down (intential?). So: Crocodilian, lying on its back, or image rotated for perversity, with ischium to the upper left, which makes this a left-side perspective, and thus caudal is to the left. Pubis buried to the upper right in abdominal muscles. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest an Alligator mississippiensis.
looks like an os innomium with the acetabulum right in the middle.
Possibly from a younger specimen as the acetabulum seems like it might not be fully fused.
I can see its not a bird, Darren’s guess of croco seems good.
would have said right acetabulum of some croc, turned upside down…but Jaime says left….and he’s right, but I realized this just after googling croc pelvis, so I’ll stick to my wrong right flipped pelvis 🙂
There once was a blonde from the coast
Her passion for bones she would boast
Til a meaty dissection
Caused a brain vivisection
Her chances of guessing right were toast.
All the things I wanted to say have been said – acetabulum rather than glenoid fossa and crocodilian (Alligator mississippiensis at a guess), so I’ll take a stab at what you were looking in to (other than a hole in the body of an animal hur hur) – was it anything to do with which muscles and bones might be involved in pelvic aspiration?
Late to the party again. 😦
All the acetabulum answers look great. Good job everyone…
Yeah, I’m feeling more confident now, especially that Jaime’s pointed to the upsidey-down-ness of the pelvis – sneaky John!
Well, I figured you’d have a relatively easy time with this one overall. But you are all wrong; it is a turkey cloaca. How could you not see that? 🙂
Just kidding!!! Darren let the croc out of the bag early- it is indeed a crocodylian pelvis, in particular a gharial (fish-eating croc), but you could never tell that level of detail just from the pelvis. The animal was being dissected while on its back, so I pulled no tricks by manipulating the image, but I did like its tricksyness.
Sooooo…. scores (total pts in [] after each name): +4 for Darren [5] (almost spot-on but I have to stick w/the rules), +4 for Jaime [11] for the quick correction, +3 for RH [15], +2 for Filippo [16] and Mark Robinson [16], and the consolation prizes of +1 go to Miekeroth [1], Michael Doube [8], William Perez(vetanat) [3] and Anath(Kash) Sheridan [8]! And +2 to ?newcomer? Robin [2] for making me laugh.
Well played, all! And (edit: corrected my math fail) Filippo and Mark are still tied, with RH very close behind and Jaime creeping up! It is still an open game, and very close. Even those at 1pt now can sneak up into the top ~10 rankings with a good answer– there will be plenty more opportunities!
Oh, and for a better view of what was concealed beneath the goo and turned upside down, see here: https://whatsinjohnsfreezer.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dsc_0963a.jpg (bottom image)– that is a right pelvis of a Nile crocodile (with a femur stuck in it).
Woohoo! +2 for making John laugh! This was WAY out of my league (relatively recent follower, first time guesser) so I opted for a limerick. I do better at Zygoma with bones but need to expand my knowledge to meatier subjects. Can’t wait for the next one!
Bloomin’ heck, I missed this one over the weekend. I was at a chicken show and couldn’t get wattles, combs and ear lobes out of my head.
Thanks for the +1 ;-p
I have to remind myself not to react during the weekend 😉 I didn’t dare to respond anymore! I have a bit more practice with recognizing bones on photos, so next time I will really do my best!!
bah, I should check my blog reader more often!
Good one, John 🙂
[…] You had some impromptu practice on day 2. Very well, then. This session counts for points. If you want a recap of points, see last Mystery Dissection. […]