Posts tagged skeleton
Skeleton of the Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus)
Superimposed over the basic form of the fowl, to give a better approximation of how the musculature and feathering of the animal is constructed.
The bird; its form and function. C. William Beebe, 1907.
Skeleton of an Adult Male
Posed to most effectively convey limb relation to torso anatomy.
The Anatomy of the Humane Body: Edition VI. William Cheselden, 1741.
Skeleton of the squirrel, showing its relation to the body
Check out that skull and those teeth - the family Sciuridae is more closely related to beavers, dormice, and porcupines, than they are to your average household rodent, despite looking like “fancy-dress rats”.
The skull is often a key differentiating factor for comparative zoologists. The design of the inner ear and teeth/jaws can often point to a very different (and much more accurate) classification of a species than body type.
Animal Forms: A Textbook of Zoology. David S. Jordan and Harold Heath, 1902.
Plantigrade vs. Digitigrade Carnivores - the Polar Bear and the African Lion
The foot structure of many animals plays a critical role in their locomotion and environmental niche, and in carnivores, the clear distinction between plantigrade (walking with the podials and metatarsals both flat on the ground) and digitigrade (walking on the toes, with the heel and wrist permanently raised) animals is most evident.
In plantigrade beasts - which include humans, many rodents, bears, racoons, and opossums - the larger surface area that the many bones provide can act as both a stabilizer and a very effective bearer of great weights. In fact, the big ol’ flighted dinosaurs were plantigrade. At the same time, so were the first (and relatively small) mammals, since both of them needed lots of stability in their feet. The weight-bearing ability and stable platform comes at the cost of speed, as the energy and requirements for movement of so many bones and muscles is much greater than digitigrade feet or unguligrade feet.
Digitigrade animals walk on only their toes, leaving their wrists and ankles permanently raised. This affords more speed, much more silent movement. Cats, birds, and dogs are digitigrade. Digitigrade feet evolved long after plantigrade feet, to fit the niche of mid-sized carnivores. However, they cannot effectively sustain large loads, which is why you cannot use a lion as a pack mule. Well, among other reasons. Really, you just don’t want to try using any mid-sized (or large, in the lion’s case) carnivore as a pack mule.
On the Anatomy of Vertebrates. Richard Owen, 1866.
![The Quack Doctor
“I have a secret Art, to cureEach Malady, which Men endure!”
[Source: Ephemeral Scraps on Flickr]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1b9ovNBcU1qk931ho1_400.jpg)
The Quack Doctor
“I have a secret Art, to cure
Each Malady, which Men endure!”
[Source: Ephemeral Scraps on Flickr]
Danse Macabre - Danza de la Muerte - Totentanz
“The Dance of Death”
What’s up, chickadees? I got distracted from my schoolwork today and spent thoroughly too much time editing and posting Danse Macabre illustrations on the Flickr Photostream. Check them out, use them, re-post them, whatever you want. And you two guys who requested more “Dance of Death” stuff had better appreciate the heck out of this (and disregard that I was already preparing it when you asked :P)!
Images:
Top: “The Dangers of the Ocean o’er/Death wrecks the Sailors on the Shore” - “The Shipwreck” - 1815
Center Left: “The Bones of All Mankind” - 1753
Center Right: “The Monk” - 1753
Bottom Left: “The Child” - 1423 (re-print from 1903)
Bottom Center: Frontispiece to “Magnus in Ortu; Maximus in Meridie; Major in Occasu”, depicting death and life [infant angel] painting the heavens and earth. - 1727
Bottom Right: “The Infant” - 1753
Yeah, I forgot about that - laundry detergent has a lot of the same ingredients as the soda salts that are used professionally, though it’s definitely a bit less caustic.
I’m not really sure why this is such a popular subject (do you people have rotting limbs hanging around your place or something?), but here are a few bone cleaning basics:
Cleaning bones via soaking (scroll down - gives good basics)
Maceration in more detail - Good bird skull advice
And, you know, there’s always Google.
From Das thierleben in Schönbrunn, Martin Gerlach Verlag (1904).
Photography by A. Karl Schuster.Found here.
I have the Carnivora plate and the Reptile/Amphibian plate from this book, but I love Caprinae too much not to reblog this - the goat-antelopes (caprids) are some of my favorite ruminants.
I don’t have the labels, but from what I can recall, it looks like the top plate has (among others) the Barbary sheep (bottom left), an alpine or Siberian ibex, a mouflon, an Arabian tahr, a bighorn sheep, a bharal, and, um, something else.
Anyway, it’s a bunch of cool horns, go marvel at them…and think about the Carnivora right below hunting them down :D
Tell me how to cleanse my bones.
prestongervais asked:
If you want to cleanse bones inside a body, I can’t help you, and you should probably seek professional help.
If they’re outside a body, remove all the flesh and fat that you can, soak it in water (DONT boil it) and put it in a warm location where the smell wont bother you. Dump out the nasty water every few days and replace it. If you have a garden, it does wonders for plants, especially fruit-producing plants like tomatoes. Once the water runs clear after two days, soak it in hydrogen peroxide (drugstore strength works fine).
Voila! Bone prepared! Granted, it takes a few weeks, but it’s a MUCH better specimen than a boiled bone.
You can also bury the bones underground during the warmer months (depending on where you live) and dig them up a month or two later. You may have to re-bury them if the temperature hasn’t been high enough, but if you do that, you can soak the bones to get the dirt off for about two days, whiten the bones, and have the same result.
Do you have a dead monkey? Well, first off, you probably shouldn’t. But for a large number of bones that need to be cleaned, meet your new best friend:
Rebloggable per request.
If you want to cleanse bones inside a body, I can’t help you, and you should probably seek professional help.
If they’re outside a body, remove all the flesh and fat that you can, soak it in water (DONT boil it) and put it in a warm location where the smell wont bother you. Dump out the nasty water every few days and replace it. If you have a garden, it does wonders for plants, especially fruit-producing plants like tomatoes. Once the water runs clear after two days, soak it in hydrogen peroxide (drugstore strength works fine).
Voila! Bone prepared! Granted, it takes a few weeks, but it’s a MUCH better specimen than a boiled bone.
You can also bury the bones underground during the warmer months (depending on where you live) and dig them up a month or two later. You may have to re-bury them if the temperature hasn’t been high enough, but if you do that, you can soak the bones to get the dirt off for about two days, whiten the bones, and have the same result.
Do you have a dead monkey? Well, first off, you probably shouldn’t. But for a large number of bones that need to be cleaned, meet your new best friend:
Jacob Schijnvoet
Skeleton of a Crane Pecking at the Skeleton of a Fish
18th century
Dodo Skeleton
From: Owen 1872 Dodo Part II
Man (Homo sapiens sapiens), Cow (Bos taurus), and Ram (Ovis aries)
The structure of the ruminant animals varies considerably. It’s important for the artist to recognize the vertebral layout and rib structure, even of animals that are covered in thick wool or fur. Wild bovids (such as bison) and aurochs have extended cervical vertebrae that form a “hump” over their shoulders.
A Comparative View of the Human and Animal Frame. B. Waterhouse Hawkins, 1860.
Hand colored copper engraving, 1837
- Page 2 of 8
- Next »
- « Previous
A blog for all biological and medical ephemera, from the age of Abraham through the era of medical quackery and cure-all nostrums. Featuring illustrations, history, and totally useless trivia from the diverse realms of nature and medicine.
See a random post!
