I have ingested far too much coffee for a Saturday night, so let me know if you’ve any questions or natural history requests. I’ve got to finish my psych paper right quick, but I’ll answer a few after that.
Medical history requests are cool, too, but I may not outright answer them - I tend to keep those in my inbox for when I’m short on inspiration and long on time I have available to research.
LOLCAT “CAN HAZ” VERBOTEN.
But
I’m feeling nice. So here are some big deer things.
Stuff like that takes a lot of money to make, so it’s mostly paid sites that have quality and accuracy. Depending on how much you want to pay, the University of Toledo and McGraw-Hill have a very thorough cadaver dissection/complete organ overview/5000 different perspectives (literally)/etc. It’s intended for use with an A&P class or textbook, but you can buy access to it without either of those.
I don’t know of anything that’s free that’s not riddled with pop-up ads (unfortunately there was one good one I used to know, but their adware is so pervasive and irritating that it’s almost impossible to use now).
I’ll get some real entries done tomorrow…It’s hard to gross me out, but there’s still some stuff out there that just makes me cringe.
In agar plates with the naked eye, it’s not really possible to positively identify specific bacteria. However, you can get a general idea what something might be, if you’re able to differentiate it from the other stuff on the plate.
A few decent colony morphology sites:
Bacterial Colonies @ University Edinburgh
Colonial Morphology - depending on the kind of plate smear you did, this will probably be the most helpful site.
Some of the other disinfectants that linger longer I’m not positive about, but for any alcohol or alcohol-based sanitizer, it does not increase bacterial resistance like antibiotic or antiseptic products. Those products are intended to kill bacteria on a surface and stay on the surface to prevent more bacteria from growing. Alcohol kills the bugs and evaporates relatively quickly, so the bacteria don’t have a chance to acclimate to it.
Washing with regular soap and water does a good job removing bacteria and viruses, too, and also doesn’t cause superbug problems.
That’s a bit of a hard one - I don’t actually know any tumblr pages related to symbolism, and when you look on the web in general (at least in my experience), you generally have to know what you’re looking for if you want to get a solid source with good primary resources.
Of course, if you’re just interested in the topic casually, I know a few old off-tumblr pages that are pretty good when it comes to animal symbolism in alchemy and in Celtic and Welsh mythology. Outside of that, a lot of symbolism pages have influences from cultures they might not even realize (especially the neo-pagan symbolism pages). There are Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Viking, Thai, and hundreds of different American cultures and African cultures that are drawn from at times, and outside of mythology/anthropology-type academic fields, it’s hard to tell the most distant origins of animal symbols.
I know they never got you a good score on Odell Down Under but would always manage to eat you early on if you weren’t a blenny >:(
Other than that, not a whole lot. They’re one of those half-trash/half-rare families that people never see or tend to throw out. Some of the shallow-water species are popular for people who keep tropical tanks, but they’re extremely moody and sometimes randomly attack previously-established fish that they’ve lived with for years (even in large aquariums) and even plants that live in the tank.
Marine biology is a fantastic field, though. It was my second aspiration (after being a brick-maker), and I held onto that idea even when I wanted to do vet science. If you’ve never read “Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings,” it’s a fun fictional take on marine and cetacean biology :D Well, when I say fictional, I mean extremely fictional. But fun nevertheless.
So they can more efficiently tear their prey to shreds, silly.
Also apparently so that males can more efficiently mate with a female. See, female habitats almost always overlap at least one male habitat. Her receptive period is short, but VERY obvious to the males. A male tiger will stalk the female, sometimes for several days. Judging by Sumatran motion-sensor camera captures in nature preserves, she seems to know he’s stalking him, but if she catches sight of him (which would be easy if not for the stripes), she’ll chase him off, and another suitor will likely be closeby.
which isn’t hard, since you’re letting me say exactly nothing.
Thanks…wish I knew more medical, but that’s such a rapidly-advancing field that I’ll always lag behind it. Ah well, fascinating and fun to learn anyhow :D
Anyway, I’ve read animal books since I was a little kid! The first book I ever read was “Why do Tigers Have Stripes?” and I haven’t stopped since then. I don’t always remember everything I’ve learned, though. Knowing basic anatomy concepts makes it easy to see zoology concepts (like by the shape and size you would assume that ‘gator tails store both fat and LARGE muscles, surrounded by a tough material), and it’s not hard to find reputable sources once you know how to find them/quickly look through them.
Long answer short: Thanks!, and in addition to a lifetime of learning animal stuff and a fair amount of medical stuff, I know how to use good resources and actually look up a good 1/3 of the questions I answer. :3
….aaaand clearly I need to start copying my replies before submitting them, because presumably tumblr is waging war against missing e. :|
ANYWAY - wish I had some or could find some, but there aren’t many out there. You can find the jaws and skulls at Scientific Illustration. An interesting point about the 3-chambered/4-chambered heart of the crocodile can be found here, if you didn’t already know that fact.
Most of the crocodilian is bone and cartilage. The only part that has major muscle development is the tail, but boy does it ever. Still, I can’t find any illustrations of the tail muscles, so if anyone out there has some, feel free to point me in their direction.
Thanks! I know my blog isn’t always the cream of the crop, but when I know people have used my content (images or otherwise) while teaching anatomy, entomology, medical greek & latin, and just to show their friends and colleagues, that’s one of the things that keeps me wanting to continue to collect and read interesting research and great images for the blog. :3
I haven’t been to any medical museums or exhibits in the UK yet. Really, the longest I’ve been in London is during some epic layovers at Heathrow. In Europe, most of where I’ve been has focused on purely cultural aspects of history, but I did manage to drag my friends through one of the very good “History of Sex” travelling exhibits that was in Prague at the same time as us. :D It was from Greek society - the Regency, ended shortly before 1800 and was only Western culture, but was very thorough on what it covered.
I have a solid list of museums I want to visit over in Europe, but I didn’t know William Hunter’s collections had their own showcase museum! He was a great anatomist and is definitely on my list.
Anyone looking for help decoding old genealogical records or researching old diseases really ought to check the site out.
More etymological and disease terminology resources can be found on the bibliography page of Antiquus Morbus.
I’m jealous! I love that sort of stuff. As for old medical terminology (and causes of death), it’s hard to get better than Antiquus Morbus. You can also get all the information from that site on their CD or in the downloadable glossary. Both are fully searchable and easier to find things in than the massive website.
The cached Glossary of Medical Terms has a few more specifics, but sadly has no present form on the internet.
Oh goodness, yes! Of course you should study anatomy! The more scientific parts of anatomy are very important when it comes to fine detail in painting and drawing. If you don’t understand the function of tendons, or how the bones connect to each other, it’s just not the same as studying “artistic anatomy”. With a foundation in scientific anatomy, you have a significant advantage.
I wouldn’t say you should go so far as studying medicine if you really want to study the arts and do illustration, but a medical anatomy class or two can almost always help even non-scientific illustrators.
I wish I knew more about the extinct hominins so that I could actually make a “legitimate” statement as to my favorite.
But as it stands, I know about extinct birds, and that’s about it. >_> If P.Z. Meyers hasn’t covered (or linked to an article about) the hominin at some point, I probably don’t know much about it.
I’m somewhat keen of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, if only because I share a LOT of the same physical traits as them. You know, short, stout, muscular, with sturdy bones.
P. boisei is a handsome one! I think calling it similar to Jay Leno is almost insulting to it…Leno has a funky-ass chin and no evidence of strong mandibles. P. boisei has flaring cheekbones, and could’ve cracked a Brazil nut with those teeth it had! I mean, sure, there’s no evidence it actually DID crack nuts, but I bet it could have.
Though, looking at the pics, Jay Leno might look sorta like one of the females, I suppose. I knew about P. boisei (or A. boisei, whichever), but I never really read about the sexual dimorphism. Those ladies were far more Leno-esque than the males.
You know, I always thought he was at least part Manx (since taillessness is a dominant trait and he was an AMAZING mouser when he lived with my partner’s mom), but the first vet he went to always said that his lack of a tail wasn’t the same as the tails of the Manx.
Honestly, I feel like the vet had perhaps seen the rumpy Manx cats with zero or near zero tail vertebrae, or had only seen Rumpy Risers, but had never seen the “stubby” variety. My parents had a cat who lost part of her tail shortly after birth, and the end was drastically different from Pickles’ tail. He has a short, non-fused, but “normal” tail, in terms of bone structure. It’s just that he only has 4-5 vertebrae there.
Since he has the typical rabbit-like back legs, the obviously-innate mousing abilities, the leanness, the flat sides, and the very-expressive facial structure of the prototypical Manx, I’ve been more and more convinced that he’s a “legitimate” Manx who was born with no tail.
I haven’t taken him to the veterinarian that Zarkoth goes to yet, but when we get his shots next month, I’m definitely going to ask. I know there are a few semi-feral Manx cats down on the Lab Farm that our vet cares for, and he’d probably have a much better idea what Pickles is. After all, his old vet was known for being the “veterinarian of the richesse” who mostly cared for smoosh-faced Persians and purebred Siamese cats. :\
Ok I’ve gotten about 5 of this same general question, so this is what I know:
Pickles was a street cat for a fair while. He was already fixed and wasn’t ragged or anything, so he clearly had a previous owner, but he was skinny and skittish when we found him. And when I say “when we found him”, I mean “when he wandered into the front porch of my partner’s mom’s house and refused to leave”. She and her daughter put up signs and posts online to see if anyone was missing an orange tailless cat, but there was no response from anyone.
He has a clearly delineated vertebra at the end of his tail, so either it was constricted in the womb and didn’t develop past that point (look up amniotic bands if you want to learn more), or he lost it at some point after he was born.
When my partner’s mom took him in, it was fully healed and the vet said there was nothing to worry about with it. Since there’s not even clear evidence of a scar at the end, he thought it was probably the result of an amniotic band restricting development and the previous owner simply had the malformed end removed (or it may have fallen off).
So yeah. Random cat that wandered in and refused to leave, didn’t have a tail when we found him, but isn’t a tailless breed.
He actually has way more balance than our other cat, but that’s cause he’s not a fatty and has VERY well-developed hind legs. He’s kinda derpy (especially when he’s looking straight forward and has weirdly-positioned derp-eyes), but he’s persistent as all get out when he wants something and is a fantastic cat.
Well, a lot of biological science is building off of (and correcting) what we already know - generally there aren’t massive, world-shaking changes to the thinking, like with physics and special relativity, or astronomy and abandoning geocentrism (and then heliocentrism).
So really, a lot of what we have these days is built off of old anatomical drawings, and Vesalius’ illustrations were the first *good* ones that were also accurate, since he abandoned the notion that ancient textbooks were enough, and actually dissected specimens for his illustrations. Since he was from the scientific revolution (one of the keystones, really), I’d argue that those old illustrations are still influential, even if we don’t use the exact drawings that were made back then.
Grey’s anatomy is heavily based off of the various important perspectives established by Vesalius and later by the Bells (Charles, John, and Benjamin) and the Hunters (John and William), and as old as it is, even the original Grey’s Anatomy is still a staple of modern science. Of course, we have the updated versions, but the original illustrations are largely intact, even while we add more and more new drawings.
I have cats, which I’m pretty sure own me more than I own them.
Much more specific! :D
I want to be a secretary bird when I grow up.
That’s sort of…vague?
Just gonna go with the first things I think of, so I guess my “favorite” small animal is the red panda and my favorite big animal is Przewalski’s horse, for its unique (yet incredibly similar) genetics and dentition.
