Just a quickie here! I’m finishing a little sabbatical at Brown University and had a bit of downtime, then ran across this confusing image that seems to have loveable, sometimes-superhero Sesame Street character Grover in it, and also poses a tough but solveable Mystery CT Slice post! So go for it! Can you find Grover? (no points for that) and can you tell us (1) what the image is of (animal/species, region of anatomy, identifiable bits), and (2) what the heck is wrong with this image and why?
Scoreboard is here for easy reference.
Difficulty: fuzzy image, amusing childhood memories.
Stomach-Churning Rating: 1/10 unless you have bad childhood memories associated with Grover.
This is the mystery image below, not the Grover image above! You cheeky monkey.
No rhyming in your answers or you lose 10000000 points! Grover is grumpy today and hates rhymes. He had a bit too much Hefeweissen and polka music last night. Pity the poor creature.
What's In John's Freezer? 
a crocodilian in a high walk, we see a cross section of a foot (right bottom) and of a lower leg (left, lowest part), thigh (above, weird angle), no idea why the trunk is so uniform. There are several metal parts implanted.
I think this guess is not correct, the supposed femur looks wrong, but I can’t come up with anything better right now.
Looks like a taxidermied specimen based on the relatively homogeneous internal structure and the presence of the metal rods running through it. Looks like it could be a section through the backside of a Kangaroo, but way too amorphous for my limited abilities!
What’s wrong with it – nasty steak artefacts caused by high attenuating material. In museum specimens this is usually metal wire out rods used for mounting skeletons, or a lead component of old-fashioned glue. In a wild shot specimen it might be bits of bullet or shotgun pellets. I guess the grey rectangle at the bottom is a piece of wood the specimen was mounted to as it’s also got a bit of metal in it to let right. This looks like a taxidermied, stuffed specimen and those two bumps at the top could be a clue. To left I’m guessing scapula and radius-ulna. Species… Pangolin?
^ streak artefacts! Thanks, Swype…
to the left a radio/ulna and what should then be the humerus, looking a bit funny. If it’s a femur then it points a strange way 🙂 On the other side some portion of a foot. Would have thought metatarsus, but being so horizontal it’s probably the phalangeal portion of the foot. Midline dorsal scute-like stuff suggest croc, but I must admit to have noticed that after reading Heinrich’s comment :s Too many “buts” to count as an answer?!
You mean Gonzo?
Gonzo! It’s definitely Gonzo. No wonder I couldn’t even find Grover. I’d give my points to Neal but I haven’t a clue to a winning guess to earn any. Taxidermied turtle or tortoise? http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3263/2603240402_47478b7d49_o.jpg
Taxidermy! Gah, my brain is fried.
Found on a toilet wall at RVC:
Some come here to learn
Some come here to wonder
But I come here to sit and think
And make up poems that don’t rhyme (or scan)
As far as the scan goes, I also thought it was a croc of some sort because of the seemingly thick skin and the two ridge-like projections on top which look as I imagine croc scutes do.
However, the lack of differentiation within the body is unusual (as are the random very bright spots) and I initially wondered if the scan was calibrated to ignore internal organs. But there’s also no apparent vertebrae yet there are what look like leg and foot bones. So perhaps the entire contents of the body were removed but the appendicular skeleton was left intact?
The long bone on the left looks very much like a croc humerus which means that the hollow objects below it are ulna and radius and it’s a right forelimb, with a left foot at the lower right.
As others have said, I assume that the bright spots are metal mounting rods altho’ the airfoil shape has me bemused.
As for species, I know nothing about the diagnostic features of croc limbs but I’d guess C. niloticus.
Heck, I wrote a post but can’t have pressed the button. It’s been one of those days.
I can see Grover on the left hand side, but have zero idea about the specimen so I’ll take a guess . . .
Dodo.
Crocodile in mid-stride (left leg bent at the knee, which might explain why the distal end of the femur is not in this particular slice). The bright spots look like they would be in the right places for securing a dead, stuffed croc in a walking pose – has this critter shuffled off its mortal coil?
I see now where the Gonzo ideas came from! I hadn’t noticed that. Well done– +3 pts to Neal and +2 for Robin for that!
Heinrich got the croc ID right, and most people got the taxidermied (NHMUK specimen) ID right– +3 pts for Heinrich and +2 for others that got that far…
But it’s a forelimb– the deltopectoral crest on the humerus is visible as in the 2nd image from the left here:
No way to ID it to species level really but it’s Crocodylus cataphractus (long-snouted crocodile), with all the innards (including vertebrae!) removed, skin preserved with the keratinous but not the bony scutes (that’s not so easy to do! They are tightly adhered), and limbs stuck on at odd angles. The skull is nicely preserved there. I CT’d it for a colleague as a favour since this specimen hinges on some taxonomic matters.
Fillippo got there first, and Mark 2nd, with help, so +4 and +3 pts for them… no clear +5 pt winner today, c’est la vie!
Michael Doube explained the CT steak (mmmm) artefacts nicely; +3 for him too! CT x-rays hitting a high-density, especially ferrous, or sharply-angled dense surface will scatter and also produce a very bright image, which leads to lots of distortion and a generally unhappy CT scan data recipient.
But we’re all happy today because everyone is a winner and Grover loves you all! (Gonzo just loves the chickens)
No big changes in the rankings on the scoreboard but thanks for joining in everyone!
https://whatsinjohnsfreezer.com/2013/05/02/scoreboard/
Woo hoo! +2 for finding Gonzo! I used a different ID to play this time so I’m wondering if you can combine “Robin”‘s points with “Robin Birrrdegg”‘s points. I promise to play with my full legal name in the future so as to avoid confusion with immigration…. er…. identification. Thank you very much for your consideration.
No problem. I was wondering- there are lots of names where they could be duplicates.
Kiwi study skin with partial humerus and r/u supported by wires?
Ahh, welcome Steve! Good guess, but it turns out to be a Crocodylus cataphractus (humerus visible)- see my longwinded comment above. Hope to see you again on the blog! 🙂