• Mystery Anatomy
  • Welcome to My Freezer!
  • Years in the Freezer (Summaries)

What's In John's Freezer?

Treasures that scientists keep on ice

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Our New Paper About 3D Dinosaur Morpho-functional Evolution: Behind the Scenes
The Official WIJF Blog Mystery Anatomy Scoreboard (and rules) »

Mystery Dissection 12: POETRY ROUND- A Mystery is a Foot!

May 2, 2013 by John of the Freezers

It’s back! Mystery Anatomy is in full swing again after a lovely summer holiday in Antarctica- check out its fabulous tan freezerburn! We now have a new scoreboard page, too, for your convenience.

Today is another poetry round, which means you not only get 1 pt for trying but also can amaze and delight us all– and win extra points for rhapsodizing in sublime eloquence at the marvel of nature you are about to behold!

The poetry form for today is the SONNET. 14 lines as usual, but we’ll relax the form and allow you to be maximally creative– just include some rhyming, but you do not need to stick to iambic pentameter or other rigid, galling forms. You must (1) identify the specimen, (2) explain what’s important/unusual about it, and (3) have fun.

Look upon this foul form, feel its greasy exterior and inhale deeply of the same rancid perfume that might have graced Pliny’s or Caesar’s aquiline nose, while your mind reels at its historical significance, which spurred on one individual of some note to exclaim “I was so ignorant I do not even know there were three varieties… how do they differ?”

Mystery12

Difficulty: The poetry will be the hardest part for some.

Stomach-Churning Rating: 2/10. Again, the main threat here is the poetry.

Proceed, morpho-poets; let this museum specimen be no paltry muse!

Some labels to help those unfamiliar with the wonders of chicken foot anatomy!

Some labels to help those unfamiliar with the wonders of chicken foot anatomy! The position I’ve labelled the “extra toe” in is arbitrary; it might be “toe 1” that is the new toe. That might make more developmental sense, that the identity of “toes” has migrated up the limb to add a new toe– and is the spur in male chickens also spurred on by similar signals? No one knows, I think.

Advertisement

Freezer sharing:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted in Mystery Anatomy Posts (all), Mystery Museum Specimen | Tagged anatomy, museum, what the HELL is that? | 23 Comments

23 Responses

  1. on May 2, 2013 at 10:12 am Heinrich Mallison

    Fourteen lines you ask for now,
    make us write poetry – but how?
    A pheasanid’s foot, or close,
    you show us here,
    what funny toes are those?
    I need a beer!
    One too many toes I count,
    just of three have I ever heard,
    is this a taxidermic mount
    of more then a single bird?
    But no, a mutant it seems to be,
    not a monster from the sea,
    a Polyplectron with three spurs,
    that has four toes from some curse!

    (or some other spurred fowl, with additional, aberrant spurs. Sorry for the horrible “poetry”; I am still fighting that paper)


  2. on May 2, 2013 at 10:20 am Stu Pond

    Karthikeya’s mount foretells the rain’s falling
    Unblinking eyes are unlidded en masse
    a harsh voice now the deluge is calling
    predicting a future that may come to pass.
    When Argus slumbered to the sound of the flute,
    and Hermes ensured his demise,
    Hera then gave our galliforme beauty
    The gift of his one hundred eyes.
    There are three of their kind that inhabit the forests:
    the Indian, Congo and Green.
    They are symbols of wealth, admired for their beauty
    in mansion’s gardens they can often be seen.
    To the the Peafowl or Peacock does this pes belong,
    so say I, though perhaps I am really quite wrong?


  3. on May 2, 2013 at 10:58 am Darren Naish

    When spurs are spied on a tarsomet,
    It’s phasianid galliforms on which you can bet,
    But here yet we see at least two of those listed,
    Combined with a hallux that’s horribly twisted,
    Ordinarily Gallus would be our first cruising,
    Yet gracility and such puts end to such musing.
    The text Hutch provides looks peppered with clues,
    Of classics, allusions to forms we might lose,
    But Polyplectron has four, not a three, am I right?
    Here, Pavo’s low spur position wins in a fight,
    I could well be wrong, and fooled by a rooster,
    But domestic mutations aren’t what this blog’s used-to,
    With doubt in my heart I am thus led to say,
    That a two-spurred peacock perhaps wins the day….


  4. on May 2, 2013 at 11:20 am William Pérez

    Pavo ?


  5. on May 2, 2013 at 11:22 am eotyrannus

    I’m wrong, aren’t I? It >is< a mutant rooster.


    • on May 2, 2013 at 11:44 am John of the Freezers

      muhahaha mum’s the word


  6. on May 2, 2013 at 11:43 am Mark Robinson

    The Curse of The Claw
    in iambic tetrameter

    This fowl polyungulate beast
    Nigh on two millennia whence
    Brought to British soil for a feast
    To fuel the Roman Conquest hence

    Dar-loser, he’s more Dork than King
    Counting types, missed another two
    Discerned by combs and colouring
    Red, White, Silver-grey, Dark, Cuckoo

    About the foot, what can be said?
    Right pes, broken digits, six claws
    It’s more than a century dead
    Like most things in museum drawers

    Gallus gallus (domestic stock)
    Insert pun about nine pound cock


    • on May 3, 2013 at 7:50 am Jaime A. Headden

      Has my vote for best line.
      I will not attempt to reply
      Should I try and fail,
      It can only be seen as sign
      That I have no hope to vie
      Within this most railing contest of late.
      Should I try I might say
      That this bird has five toes,
      Of which two are halluces paired
      Beneath the spur. I pray
      I might be right, but worries so
      That even that I dared this reply is still late.


  7. on May 2, 2013 at 2:10 pm Michael Doube

    Our good friend John has set another task:
    “Identify some putrid old remains.”
    This specimen’s old host we must unmask
    And give to him forthwith the beast’s true name.


    • on May 2, 2013 at 2:25 pm Michael Doube

      The jutting weaponry, a spike, a spur,
      Hints to me a bird, the peacock-pheasant
      but my poetic colleagues don’t concur;
      Disagreement could become unpleasant.


      • on May 2, 2013 at 2:37 pm Michael Doube

        Are they right, is it a common rooster?
        Gallus gallus, could it be more mundane?
        Surely not, this needs a little booster,
        A tasty turkey foot could take the blame.


    • on May 2, 2013 at 2:43 pm Michael Doube

      It’s time for me to leave this petty fight
      We had a go, did someone get it right?


      • on May 2, 2013 at 3:55 pm John of the Freezers

        Answer tomorrow, my good chums
        For now, just sit there on your bums
        And watch some others compose fine sonnets
        Who shall win? None can say; place bets upon it?


  8. on May 2, 2013 at 7:25 pm Carolyn Eadie DeBoer

    I’m never an expert at identifying these
    But clearly it’s a bird foot, below the knees.
    That great big spike makes me think a rooster is the answer to this mystery
    Pliny described the cockatrice, or basilisk- if you read ancient history.
    Perhaps the broken toe happened when the rooster contested
    Pliny’s cockatrice, which was eventually bested.
    You’re mentioning Romans so I’m straining to connect
    The picture with your description in every aspect.
    But I’m sure there’s something more interesting
    To this picture that I’m surely missing.
    Regardless of my answer, this poem is bad
    My rhyming brings to mind a limerick rather than a sonnet; how sad.
    Reading this might prove astonishingly painful
    Poetry composition is not how I maintain employment, however gainful.


  9. on May 2, 2013 at 7:29 pm Amy Beer

    I once saw a critter
    In water that glittered
    By the light of the austral moon
    Could it be one of those
    Or do you suppose
    I’m being a total buffoon?

    Looks birdy, but then…
    Perhaps not a hen.
    Five toes and a spur…
    did it maybe have fur?

    It was certainly beaky
    But otherwise freaky.
    Is it quite wrong to think
    Male Ornithorhynch…?


  10. on May 2, 2013 at 8:09 pm Lisa Buckley (@ShamanSciences)

    This rhyme is more Suessical than iambic pentameter, but here goes:

    “How cruel to force a foot iambic,
    But the game is afoot, so I will just cram it.
    As fancy a fowl a fowl fancier fancied,
    The spur on this foot means this fowl was no nancy.
    He may be a dork, but we like geeks and nerds,
    Romans and Brits must have dined on these birds.
    Several breeds of G. gallus are pentadactyl,
    The Silkie, the Houdan, and Sultan are quite fanciful.
    A fowl with an august lineage, there need be no more looking,
    There can be only one, and that is the Dorking.”

    Of course, I may be quite wrong, but either way I wait (im)patiently for the answer!


  11. on May 2, 2013 at 8:52 pm Carol

    The metatarsal of the rooster
    is armed with both spur and claw.
    In medicine he supplies pox booster,
    but fighting is the biggest draw.

    Two cocks fight to the end
    and loser feet are stockpot bound
    or fried till crispy dim sum blend
    and sold to diners by the pound.

    Accessory metatarsus is a clue
    Of these this bird has clearly two
    Or perhaps three, it’s hard to see
    At this game I’m pretty new.

    Although I’m only hoary horde
    I hope to gain points with this bird.


  12. on May 2, 2013 at 9:11 pm hypnotosov

    This game be devilishly hard
    thus cried the famous bard,
    Would that I studied anatomy,
    not wasted time on poetry.

    Like an arrow loosed,
    or a hen that´s goosed,
    I go with great speed,
    but it’s deliberation I need.

    I have nary a clue,
    and an answer is due.
    So I say to you,
    twas once an emu.

    You might think me simplistic,
    but I think that trait is atavistic.


  13. on May 3, 2013 at 12:44 am Colleen

    Guh, I hung my poetry up to dry a long time ago… but I have these critters as pets. It’s a silky chicken. Rooster, because of the bone for the spur sheath.


  14. on May 4, 2013 at 6:23 am John of the Freezers

    Your poems rang a chord in my heart
    Sweet as any biscuit, lolly or tart
    Such sage whispers of heavenly wisdom
    I was hurled into chasms of starry-eyed bliss then

    “But what of the answer, please tell us John now!”
    I have 8 lines left, so please don’t have a cow
    It was indeed a creature of poultry affinity
    Of fame that may echo on into infinity

    But ’tis no peacock, pheasant nor monotreme
    The clues were all variations upon a theme
    Of Romans, Darwin and five-toed anatomy
    There is only one fowl of such fame, take that from me

    Mark Robinson spoke the answer that sparkled with truth
    Dorking Chicken, mighty mutant cock, pray forsooth!

    =======
    http://www.finedictionary.com/Dorking%20fowl.html

    But that was awesome! You guys rocked! Thanks to everyone for the kick-ass sonnets! +6 points for Mark, who rockets way into the lead! +4 points for Heinrich, Stu, Darren, Michael, Jaime, Carolyn, Amy, Lisa, Carol, hypnotosov; +2 for Colleen and +1 for William Pérez. Scores updated on the scoreboard: https://whatsinjohnsfreezer.com/2013/05/02/scoreboard/ (you have to post in the Comments to get on the scoreboard)

    There are some helpful anatomy labels in the image above and here: https://whatsinjohnsfreezer.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/mystery12b.jpg
    This specimen is from the NHM at Tring, where the bird specimens are kept, and was Charles Darwin’s own personal research specimen in 1868, when he was studying artificial selection in chicken breeds! How cool is that? Dorking Fowl are famed for being genetically predisposed toward having extra toes and other strange traits. I’ve seen some with two spurs on the foot, too.

    Remain vigilant! There will be another round in not too long; I already have the image cocked and loaded…


    • on May 4, 2013 at 7:59 am Mark Robinson

      I saw the date on the specimen but it didn’t click with me that it has a direct connection to Charles Darwin (whom I blasphemed by referring to as a loser and dork when he was neither – poetic license is my only defence).

      When I was a kid we had a Chinese Silkie Bantam rooster with 11 toes and 13 claws/spurs. They weren’t initially obvious because of its feathery feet but when I saw them I thought that they would be what dragon’s feet would look like.

      Lastly, I wish to applaud the ridiculous number of puns that you somehow managed to get away with. Hopefully you weren’t trying to gall us. 😉


      • on May 4, 2013 at 8:21 am John of the Freezers

        -1000000000000 points for blasphemy! 🙂


  15. on May 14, 2013 at 7:02 am A Chance Encounter with Darwin’s Chickens. And Cake. | What's In John's Freezer?

    […] recently with the Dorking Chicken (another of Darwin’s own specimens that I studied) in the “Mystery Museum Specimen” poetry round of late. Dorkings are HUGE chickens; easily twice the weight of even a broiler chicken, up to […]



Comments are closed.

  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 16,310 other subscribers
  • Rummage Through the Blog Freezer

  • Census of the Freezer-Curious

    • 611,813 frozen to date
  • @JohnRHutchinson

    • RT @WholesomeMeme: https://t.co/Y1zNi5F4SQ 1 hour ago
    • RT @ErikSolheim: Unbelievable 3D billboard in China 😃 https://t.co/CgmOYZPlac 6 hours ago
    • RT @LiveScience: Sea spiders can regrow their anuses, scientists discover trib.al/hcgv7QW 7 hours ago
    • Went in for a routine annual hospital checkup. NHS nurses were so damn nice. Friendly, on the ball, even playful wi… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 7 hours ago
    • RT @hymenop_terror: Designed an urban evolution sticker lately, it came out exactly how I wanted! https://t.co/seUZJzuQdY 9 hours ago
    Follow @johnrhutchinson
  • Recent Posts

    • An Invisibly Disabled Life: Ongoing Summary
    • Year 10.5 of John’s Freezer: WTF?
    • Year 9.5 of John’s Freezer: Postmortem of a Year That Warped Time
    • Simulating Dinosaur Locomotion And Wrestling With Scepticism
    • Evolutionary Biomechanics of Dinosaur Legs
  • Buried in the Freezer (archive)

  • About John

    • @JohnRHutchinson on Twitter
    • Academia.edu
    • John's Pinterest boards
    • John's research publications
    • John's RVC homepage
    • My "Up Goer Five" Research Summary (simple words only)
    • Structure and Motion Laboratory
    • This blog's Youtube video channel
    • Towards The Chicken of the Future
  • Chillin' With Art

    • Diary of a Taxidermist
    • Freezer Friday
    • Jason Freeny's artsy toy dissections
    • Pinterest: pinned WIJF blog images
    • Real Anatomy (German site; cool plastination etc.!)
    • Street Anatomy
  • Cool as Ice

    • An Anatomist's Guide
    • Anatomy To You (our sister blog)
    • Ask A Biologist
    • Biological Marginalia
    • Catalogue of Organisms
    • Inside Nature's Giants (UK)
    • Jake's Bones
    • JellyBiologist
    • microecos
    • Morbid Anatomy Blog
    • National Geographic: Phenomena (top science writers)
    • Parasite of the Day
    • Science Made Cool
    • Tetrapod Zoology
    • The Brain Scoop (on Tumblr; blog)
    • The Brain Scoop (on Youtube)
    • Veterinary Forensics Blog
  • Frigorific Research Labs

    • (Colleen) Farmer Lab, Univ Utah
    • Division of Vertebrate Morphology (SICB)
    • Integrative Anatomy at Missou U
    • International Society of Vertebrate Morphology (ISVM)
    • Laboratory for Functional Morphology, Universiteit Antwerp
    • Nick Pyenson's lab (whale evolutionary morphology)
    • The Anatomical Society (UK)
    • The Secret Life of Beetles at the NHM
    • Witmer Lab
  • Stone Cold

    • Andrew Cuff's palaeo-postdoc blog
    • Chinleana
    • Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings
    • Dinosaur Tracking
    • Dinosaurpalaeo
    • Dr. Peter Falkingham, ichnologist
    • Land of the Dead
    • Saurian
    • Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • What's In John's Freezer?
    • Join 3,419 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • What's In John's Freezer?
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: