It has been a long time since we had some Mystery Anatomy fun here, so I am cutting loose with a double-barrelled blast of images– dive for cover!
I’m also giving out a Crimbo present as a bigger post, on a special day coming soon, count on that. This is just an advent snack.
Stomach-Churning Rating: 2/10 and 7/10: digital body and glistening, snotty.
Mystery Anatomy 2014: same rules as before; remember that the scoreboard has been reset.
Identify (1) the animal shown in the four-panel top images (CT scan/reconstruction), and (2) the DIFFERENT animal (and/or the main central, pink structure) shown in the big, gooey bottom image (Dissection). No special rules. Potential for double points!
And someone will get these, I am sure. This might be the final round of 2014’s Mystery Anatomy game.
Difficulty: Plenty.
Mystery CT 14
Mystery Anatomy 15
Go forth!
What's In John's Freezer? 
2 is a crocdilian, maybe a gator. Hind limb and CFL nicely visible.
1…. some bird. Grrr, too busy building a SIMM model to think clearly.
the first is a bird. one can see the beak in the reconstruction and also the feathers on the bottom left. i can also see a braincase on top left. now… what kinda bird…? and what are those things that look like crab legs?? the other one looks weird to me… this thing at the front looks like a webbed limb. i go with a turtle. be nice with the scoring :p
Hi John, nice to see you agan on the road!
Well, the first one a bird definitely. Maybe a baby Struthio?
The second I agree with Heinrich, some croc with the femur at the left and the CFL at the right.
Cheers!
Top one is a bird, probably a grebe. The toe digits are HUGE. Coronal, transverse, sagittal, then combined and viewed end on (it matters not from which angle).
I won’t speculate on the second.
Wow, tough ones this time. I’m going with a sea bird for the CT scans – maybe a loon or grebe. Why? The legs appear to be far back on the body and the bill is relatively long and straight.
Is the reconstruction supposed to be the same bird? To me it looks like a bird eating spider in the middle of lunch…
The bottom image might be a pinniped (seal or sea lion). I’m basing this solely on the leg I’m taking to be a front leg and the amount of what appears to be fat. No guess on the pink structure.
I was trying to comment the same time as Jaime, but it is definitely not Struthio. I think a grebe, something small like the pied grebe would be a good choice.
#2 would make a lot of sense as a crocodilian hindlimb + tail as per Gabi and Heinrich
1) a bird eating spider, eating a bird. Or a crab eating a bird?
2) is it a view of a bird humerus, radius and ulna with all the skin and feathers removed, and the pink thing to the right is a lung?
still thinking about that bird. The beak is all wrong for the usual suspects like emus and ostriches. So not something that I shifted around in your freezer.
The feet are huge, so maybe some water-bird. Capable of walking on water foliage… a rail of some sort?
I hope my guess isn’t too far off the rails, but I’m going to suggest a loon for the first image – my brain is all Hesperornis-y right now, so I’m seeing loons everywhere – based on head and beak proportions, body shape, leg position, and relative proportions of feet to the head. I hope it’s a Pacific Loon or Black-throated Diver!
Second image: I have nothing original to add, so I’ll echo Hendrich’s ‘gator hindlimb + CF vote.
I’m guessing #14 is a Leatherback Turtle and # 15 is a Walrus penis & flipper.
Yeah, I agree with Heinrich, some sort of crocodilian with caudofemoralis longus exposed. The hind leg is in the foreground. There’s a tiny bit of the outside of the skin of the foot visible in the lower right which also looks encouragingly crocodilian. Is it a black caiman?
The scanned bird looks like it has feet coming out of its arse so I’m going with an arse-foot aka grebe of some sort. As others have commented, the reconstruction is very reminiscent of a crab viewed from above but it is obviously just the bird front-on with its huge splayed feet being the crab’s legs and its wings the claws/more legs.
Frirst I thought #14 should be species from the family Megapodidae; because it is definitive a bird and the feet are large, but then I remembered the jacanids and looking at the REAL freaky feet it should be one of these guys
a turkey ?
My first thought for the bird was indeed a grebe. The sternum is too deep and too small for an ostrich or an emu. And the beak is too pointy for one of those also. Large wings, so a bird that can fly. And regarding the feet: I am with Mark Robinson
Just for some variety and because I saw a bunch of them in the weekend:
1) a heron, of the grey variety common around here.
2) no idea. looks stinky, though.
1) I also saw a bunch of those black coots with the white face and wide padded digits, which fits better with the spidery reconstruction image…
Interesting answers, keep them coming! The grand reveal is in 24hrs.
Voila!
1) Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus)- I saw those legs in that 3D reconstruction view and like several commenters thought “crab” or “spider.” Red herring! But the traits identifying it are clear enough to get to something like a procellariiform or at least seabird. Nice tummy contents in lower left- fish, I assume.
2) Yes, crocodile M. caudofemoralis longus, one of the greatest muscles ever! (no I am not biased)
Heinrich +5+1=+6; Gabi +3, Ale +4 (got bird+CFL), Jaime +3 (1st to note big digits), Reno Hates Me (welcome!) +3, Nick +3, Lorna +2, Lisa +2, Chris Thomas +2, Mark +2, Jan +2, Zoe +1, Mieke +2, Michael +2.
(some points here just for participation, for effort/detail, for being 1st/2nd)
Updating scoreboard… but somehow I suspect that the Mystery Anatomy game is not done for 2014. Stay tuned…
Oh bugger, missed it again. Too distracted with nodosaurs…
ooo so proud to have one point !
🙂 Big things can have small beginnings!