Here, I give you a long-planned post on the patella (“kneecap bone”) of birds, which was my Royal Society Senior Research Fellowship sabbatical project for 2012-13. This is only a brief introduction to the anatomical issues at hand, err, I mean at knee… Stomach-Churning Rating: 6/10; mostly skeletons/fossils, but there are a few images of […]
Search Results for 'patella'
I Never Met A Fella Who Didn’t Like a Good Patella
Posted in Exalting Archosauria, Shiverin' Sesamoids!, tagged anatomy, boids, dissection, museum, sesamoid on November 24, 2013| 21 Comments »
Year Six of Johns Freezer
Posted in Freezermas, tagged freezer love, freezermas, RVC on July 7, 2018| 1 Comment »
I’m a few months late on the six-year anniversary of this blog but finally found some time. (For year 5 go here) It was seemed to be another quiet year on the blog because it was not a quiet year for work or other aspects of life. The DAWNDINOS project got into full swing and there […]
The Bird Knee Challenge
Posted in Anatomy Vignette, tagged anatomy, boids, dem bones, evolution, patella, ratite, sesamoid, what the HELL is that? on December 10, 2017| 9 Comments »
An epiphysean Sispyhean task today: solve this mystery that has been bothering me for >15 years. It’s about bird knees. Read on. Stomach-Churning Rating: 1/10- bones and brief words. Nothing to worry about. Here is an ostrich. I was interviewing undergrads the other day and looked up to see it, then thought something like: “Oh […]
You Thaw That, We Thaw These
Posted in Frozen Mammals, Mad Science, tagged anatomy, Danger: Double Entendres, dissection, freezer love, patella, science story on November 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »
This week we conducted wallaby leg dissections for a study of the kneecaps of marsupials (pouched mammals). Placental (non-pouched) mammals like us almost all have bony kneecaps but many marsupials do not. Kneecaps do important things, acting like gears around the knee joints (e.g. this old post), and yet it is unclear why some marsupials […]
Why do ostriches have two kneecaps in each knee?
Posted in Exalting Archosauria, Shiverin' Sesamoids!, tagged anatomy, boids, dem bones, modelling, patella, publication, ratite, sesamoid on June 8, 2017| 1 Comment »
Uh oh, a “why?” question in biology! There are many potential, and not mutually exclusive, answers to such questions. Ultimately there is a historical, evolutionary answer that underpins it all (“ostriches evolved two kneecaps because…”). But we like ostrich knees and their funky double-kneecaps (patellae; singular = patella) so we wanted to know why they […]
Yet More Wonderful Fossilized Soft Tissue
Posted in Exalting Archosauria, Shiverin' Sesamoids!, tagged anatomy, CT, dem bones, fossilicious, publication on March 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Today almost three years of collaboration come together in a publication that is a fun departure from my normal research, but also makes sense in light of it. Professor Baoyu Jiang from Nanjing University in China has been being working on the taphonomy of the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota from northeastern China (Manchuria) for a […]
“Everything” You Didn’t Know You Wanted to Know About Mammalian Kneecaps
Posted in Frozen Mammals, Shiverin' Sesamoids!, tagged anatomy, dem bones, evolution, fossilicious, patella, publication on March 21, 2017| 5 Comments »
I’m not shy about my fondness for the patella (kneecap) of tetrapod vertebrates, and neither are the other members of RVC’s “Team Patella”. We’ve had a fun 3+ years studying these neglected bones, and today we’ve published a new study of them. Our attention has turned from our prior studies of bird and lepidosaur kneecaps […]
Delight in the Museum
Posted in Museums are Cool, When Anatomy Goes Bad, tagged anatomy, boids, dem bones, museum, patella, ratite on August 11, 2015| 13 Comments »
I have an impression that there is a large disparity between how the public views museums and how scientists who use museums view them. Presumably there are survey data on public attitudes, but surely the common impression is that museums mainly exist to exhibit cool stuff and educate/entertain the public. Yet, furthermore, I bet that many […]
Honouring Alexander
Posted in Biomechanics, tagged buddies, in all seriousness, RVC, science story on July 15, 2015| 30 Comments »
Maybe it’s uncool to talk about heroes in science these days, because everyone is poised on others’ shoulders, but “Neill” (Robert McNeill) Alexander is undeniably a hero to many researchers in biomechanics and other strands of biology. Our lab probably wouldn’t exist without his pervasive influence- he has personally inspired many researchers to dive into […]
The Giant Dinosaurs of Modern London (photo blog)
Posted in Exalting Archosauria, tagged anatomy, boids, chickens, dem bones, sci comms on April 26, 2015| 4 Comments »
This week was a great week for me and giant dinosaurs in many ways, so I’m sharing that experience via photos and a bit of backstory. I hope you like it. Stomach-Churning Rating: 1/10. Big birds and bones but no barfing. First, I attended the filming of a new documentary, “T. rex Autopsy” (due for release […]
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