Short and sweet post here; it’s sunny outside and I want to be there BBQing!
I had a buried folder of CT files labelled as a species of fish, but on digging them out and segmenting them I realize it is not what I expected (inner fish or not!), as you will see.
Stomach-Churning Rating: 2/10; simple CT scan of a body.
Mystery Anatomy 2014: same rules as before; remember that the scoreboard has been reset.
Identify the animal in the CT scout/pilot image below, as specifically as you can. But… (READ THE SENTENCE BELOW FIRST BEFORE ANSWERING!)
Today’s special rule: Summertime is coming and that means superhero films! Your answer must be in the form of a dialogue between a superhero(ine) and a supervillain(ess)!
Difficulty: Even I am not 100% sure what this is but I have a decent idea. Not super hard, but not a super good segmentation.
Pow! Bam! Biff! Go forth and conquer! Then invite the Human Torch to your BBQ.
What's In John's Freezer? 
happy BBQing!
To poorly paraphrase the x-men:
Mastermind: And so I finally have the Mystery CT in my clutches and you are powerless to stop me identifying it! If my calculations are correct it is the dastardly creature we have come to know as The Mole.
Storm: Do you know what happens to a mole when its struck by lightening… the same thing that happens to everything else.
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[going to hide deep somewhere…]
hope BBQ was good 🙂
mh, ok, it was looking a bit less like a mute movie scene, originally…
“Aardvarkus, you won’t make it this time, this is your end!!”
“CT-scanner…. finish me off…[Aardvarkus sort of sighs…]…I’m kind of dead anyway, already..”
This one’s from that well known 70s cartoon, Mighty Mouse. It will only make sense if you are old enough.
Oil Can Harry: hahahahah now I can take over the world, and no-one can stop me! No-one! NO-ONE! MWAHAHAHAHAHA
(dramatic music)
Mighty Mole (singing): Mighty Mole is on his waaaaaay! Here he comes to save the daaaaay!
Oil Can Harry: huh?
The viewer: huh?
Oil Can Harry: Mighty _Mole_?
MIghty Mole: Yes, it’s Mighty Mouse’s day off.
Oil Can Harry: Never mind, I’m going to CT scan you anyway!
mwahahahahahahaahahahah…….
(sizzle)
FIN
RobinBird: Aha, Mole Man, we meet again! Funny to see YOU on the other end of the worm this time.
Mole Man: Put me down! I wasn’t doing anything. Just trying to eat my lunch and YOU tried to steal it. Besides,you couldn’t have possibly known I was hidden under the ground.
RobinBird: That’s where you are WRONG, my evil friend! I have a secret power that allows my beady eyes to see through the earth right to your very BONES! I’d know those chubby hands and pointy nose anywhere.
Mole Man: HA! I don’t believe you! You just won’t admit I caught you with my bionic worm. You can’t pass up a tasty morsel, you glutton.
RobinBird: That’s where you err again, my blind little one. Again, my eyes allowedme to see the mechanics inside the worm. I knew if I yanked quickly, I’d have you dangling from the worm in my beak faster than you can say “Mystery CT Scan!”
Mole Man: Curses! Soiled again!
The epic finale will be tomorrow morning GMT… with the revealing of our super-animal’s secret identity! Was it correctly guessed yet?
James Bond: Your plans have been foiled Goldfinger! I took care of your henchmen an hour ago, including that Odd fellow with the stiff-brimmed hat!
Goldfinger: You may think that you have stopped my nefariousness by dealing with the obvious, but, you have yet to discover my very own personal mole – Chrysochloris!
So, League of Super-Anatomists, many of you got the “mole” hints above, and Moleman would be an excellent choice of supervillain– and timely, as the Moleman is supposed to appear in the next Fantastic Four movie. Punked-out visor-sunglasses FTW!
http://screenrant.com/fantastic-four-reboot-mole-man-actor-tim-blake-nelson/
But a mole is sort of an ecomorph; a body form that has evolved several times in mammals in association with a similar environment, namely burrowing and aquatic habits. Or at least now we know that thanks to abundant genetic and anatomical data. Regardless, mole ecomorphs tend to have similar features– a squat body, vestigial or absent eyes and ears (pinnae), short tails, crazy robust digging arms, flattened and clawed hands and feet (sometimes with extra false sixth “fingers”), etc. What kind of mole is it, of the >>30 species known? We have the true moles, marsupial moles, golden moles and more…
There are hints in the CT reconstructions above– the palms face in a fairly normal mammalian ventral direction, not so caudally (posteriorly), as in “normal” moles like Talpa. The hands and feet are missing a digit. If you really peer closely, there’s an extra bone in the arm. And the humerus has a totally freakish shape, sort of a J or L shape, unlike the I-beam shape of a more normal mole. These traits lead us to the conclusion that it is a golden mole, Chrysochloris! Species unknown; there are >20, and a surprisingly decent enough fossil record.. Tenrecs seem to be close relatives within the Afrosoricida, and together they are part of the great southern radiation of mammals (including aardvarks, and elephants”) called the Afrotheria.
More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysochloridae
Excellent page here:
http://www.afrotheria.net/golden-moles/
I realize these scan data came from Matthew Colbert, Ted Macrini and colleagues originally at UTexas-Austin- here is a link to Digimorph’s data:
http://digimorph.org/specimens/Chrysochloris_sp/arm/
Tet Zoo of course has covered the glory of golden moles:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/06/24/golden-moles/
Look! Down in the earth! It’s a mole! It’s an afrotherian! It’s- it’s- it’s Superchrysochloris!
+2 points for everyone that made the fun superhero dialogues; +3 points for those that got “mole”, and +5 to the amazing AnJaCo with the last-minute swoop in to save the day with the correct secret identity of our burrowing buddy! Scoreboard updated.
Oh, and the BBQ was great; lasted 2 days and now I am craving vegetables.