anatomy | What's In John's Freezer?

Posts Tagged ‘anatomy’

Head over to dinosaurpalaeo for Mammal Monday 17 and a Giraffe Dissection!

Posted in Frozen Mammals, tagged anatomy, buddies, dissection, giraffe on April 2, 2012| 4 Comments »

Heinrich Mallison’s photo-rific dinosaurpalaeo blog has the first of what might, if the Gods of the Freezers remain kind, be a series of posts on our dissections of some of the verrrrrry same giraffe limbs featured earlier on this blog. Have a brush with greatness- see the giraffe legs in deconstruction! For free! What more fun could you possibly have (legally)?

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Mystery Dissection

Posted in Mystery Dissection, tagged anatomy, dissection, what the HELL is that? on March 21, 2012| 9 Comments »

OK, I had an inspiration for another short image-based blog post. People seemed to enjoy the wallaby mystery photo, so I’ll start a tradition here of mystery images from dissections of “my” specimens. That could even be an easy quasi-weekly thing to do.

What’s this animal? Binomial required. One guess per person please, unless you all get stumped. Bonus myology-nerd points to those who can name all the labelled muscles without checking literature (I’ve used these abbreviations a lot in my papers!).

Too hard I think! Extra hint sneak peek as per comments; same specimen — hmm what’s this, a jaw or something else? Bad image (these things aren’t easy to come by for photo ops), but quite distinctive…

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Anatomists Helping With Rhino Crisis

Posted in Rhinoceros Crisis, tagged anatomy, in all seriousness, rhinos on March 14, 2012| 7 Comments »

On a serious note, in case you aren’t aware of it, there is a huge crisis afoot with the world’s rhino populations, because of demonstrably false claims about the health benefits of rhino horn (e.g. curing cancer) leading to a surge in its value worldwide, and thereby a massive upswing in poaching- as well as theft of museum specimens(!?). It may just be a matter of time before zoos’ and safari parks’ rhinos outside of Africa/Asia get hit, too. If sustained, this poaching could wipe out multiple rhino species in a matter of years; it is that severe and seems to already be worse this year than it was last year- and that was a Very Bad Year for rhinos.

However, a lot of people are uniting against the cruel greed and gross ignorance that has fueled the decline of rhinos, and public support seems to be growing. You can contribute, too; one example is this cause, or this one, to name but two. I’ve tried to make this my #1 cause, both on personal/ethical and scientific grounds (e.g. our work on rhino foot mechanics, health and care, to be detailed here later), and have been educating myself about it.

Anatomist extraordinaire Professor Larry Witmer of Ohio University has been contributing scientifically to helping rhinos, in an unexpected (but very sensible) way. This is a perfect example of how important basic science is; if we didn’t know rhino horn/nose anatomy we’d be less able to treat problems when they arise, and such problems can come from unexpected directions. His team’s contributions in the understanding of rhino anatomy are helping in one horrible case (see video below), in which three rhinos had their horns slashed off (along with part of the top of their skulls!) and two have survived so far. The vets in South Africa are trying to treat these two mutilated animals, and Larry’s group has been providing anatomical advice along with superb pictures on their Facebook page, which I want to publicize here because it is such GREAT freezer-based anatomical science and stunning imagery, and a seriously urgent cause. Please take a look. And while you’re at it, check out the Kariega Game Reserve’s Facebook page with more info on the plight of poor Themba and Thandi.