Our guest post this week comes from Sophie Regnault, a PhD student in the Structure and Motion Laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College. If you would like to contribute a guest post, please get in touch on Twitter or Facebook. The patella (kneecap) is probably the largest and most widespread of the sesamoids (a group of…
Month: January 2016
New study brings ancient giraffid Sivatherium back to life
In a new study published today in Biology Letters, RVC researchers Chris Basu, Peter L. Falkingham and Professor John R. Hutchinson have digitally reconstructed the skeleton (and fleshed-out body) of a fossil relative of modern giraffes, Sivatherium giganteum, for the first time. From calculations based on their new model, the authors find that Sivatherium probably weighed in at around 1.25 tonnes…
Flamingo skull shows adaptations to life feeding upside down
The skull of the flamingo shows several fascinating adaptations for its use in feeding. Flamingos, of course, feed with their heads upside down in water, filtering it for small prey items. Accordingly they have some interesting structural features which differ from other birds – the lower bill is larger and stronger than the upper bill,…
Resin cast of a canine kidney
Plastinated cast of the blood vessels (pink) supplying the kidney and the renal pelvis (yellow, not the same as the pelvic bone), which collects urine and carries it to the bladder. Plastination and cast-making provide an excellent way to study complex networks of vessels such as this one, and help biologists to examine them without the…
Kiwi X-ray shows the huge size of her egg
Kiwis are strange birds in many ways, and not least for their short stubby wings and long, hair-like feathers. They are the smallest living ratites (flightless birds, including ostriches, emus and cassowaries), with the largest species reaching maximum heights of just 45 cm. Unlike flying birds, kiwis have relaxed constraints on their weight, and…
We’re gearing up for a new project here at RVC..!
Today we welcomed seven new pheasants to the lab for a project on bird biomechanics! Masters student Olivia Morris-Barry will be filming the birds and tracking their movement for her thesis project at the Royal Veterinary College. For more information on our work on birds, watch the video above!
Leg of the female drone fly, Eristalis tenax
This confocal microscope image shows the pretarsus (the distal tip of the leg) of a female drone fly, with many fine hairs and bristles visible. The number, appearance and placement of bristles across the legs and thorax region of many insects can help biologists to identify specific taxonomic groups: species, genera, families, orders and classes (in ascending size…
Juvenile file clam, Lima
Bivalves are molluscs with two shells, such as oysters, mussels and clams. As adults, these are all sessile, unable to move far from their anchor point on rocks and other surfaces. But movement is necessary to avoid overcrowding and food shortages – these animals have mobile larval and juvenile stages which are pelagic (move through the water…
Section through lower spinal cord, labelled with fluorescent markers
Lumbar (lower) spinal cord, sectioned and labelled using fluorescent markers. The markers attach to antibodies which are introduced by the researcher and designed to bind to specific proteins. This technique is called immunofluorescence. Here, green indicates markers for sensory neurons, red shows motor neurons and blue highlights rough endoplasmic reticulum – where most protein synthesis takes…
Iridescent scales on the wing of the sunset moth
The colour patterns on the wings of Lepidopterans (butterflies and moths) are costructed from thousands of scales. The sunset moth, Chrysiridia rhipheus have unique, iridescent patches which are produced not by pigmentation, but by microscopic adaptations to the structure of the scales themselves. Each one is made up of multiple layers, held separated by randomly located…
#fossilfriday: Amber-encased spider’s head revealed
Although this image of a huntsman spider’s head looks modern, it represents the first clear view of a 49 million year-old fossil. Eusprassus crassipes remains encased in resin were scanned using X-ray computed tomography to reconstruct its anatomy in stunning detail for the first time. Researchers from the University of Manchester were able to conclusively described the…
CT scan of an African pangolin
Computed tomography (CT) scans of an African pangolin or scaly anteater. Pangolins are a unique family of mammal insectivores which are found in forests and desert in Africa and South-East Asia. They are covered in unique keratin scales, which make up 20% of their total weight. The largest species, the giant ground pangolin, can grow up to…
Anatomy To You 