This week’s post is from Dr. Emily Naylor, a postdoctoral scientist at the Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University (DC, USA). This post is about her ongoing research. If you would like to write for Anatomy to You, get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. Happy and safe holidays to you! Have you ever seen a…
Author: Anatomy to You
Celebrating the structure of organisms, with snapshots of some of the most fascinating and ground-breaking projects both within and beyond the RVC.
Anatomy To You was founded in December 2015 by Dr Lauren Sumner-Rooney and Professor John R. Hutchinson at the Royal Veterinary College, London.
In focus: Blind creatures of the deep
This week’s post is from Lauren Sumner-Rooney, a post-doctoral researcher at the Museum für Naturkunde. If you would like to write for Anatomy to You, get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. The featured image shows a specimen of a new species of Zetela (a snail), removed from its shell. Image: Natural History Museum, Specimen: Museum National…
#FossilFriday New discoveries at your feet: 40 million year-old sea cow found in Spanish pavement!
It’s not uncommon to glance down at the pavement or the floor of a shopping centre and spot traces of ancient life – ammonites and belemnites can be seen in deposits all over the world, for example. But in the Spanish town of Girona, the paving slabs of one street have offered up a very…
In focus: What is the Portuguese Man-O’-War?
Our guest post this week comes from Emei Ma, a scientific artist. If you would like to contribute a guest post, please get in touch on Twitter or Facebook. Occasionally, we come across an image or a video that compels us to ask, “What is that?” Such was the case when I saw the mesmerizing work of Aaron…
In focus: The mysterious extra ‘digits’ of pandas, moles and elephants
The biological ‘five finger rule’ is strikingly consistent throughout living tetrapod vertebrates. Humans and other primates, most carnivorous mammals, crocodiles, lizards and tortoises all typically possess the five digits (fingers and toes) characteristic of tetrapod limbs. It wasn’t always so – the ancient ancestors of the first vertebrates to walk on land, such as Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, had up to…
Metamorphosis made eas(ier)! Breathtaking 3D scans reveal secrets of a developing butterfly
Ever wondered what biological witchcraft is going on inside the chrysalis (‘cocoon’) of a developing butterfly? One team from Manchester University and the Natural History Museum has a better idea than most – Tristan Lowe and colleagues used CT scanning technology to trace the development of living animals undergoing metamorphosis. Their use of CT ingeniously…
#FossilFriday: Ingenious camouflage found in ancient amber-preserved insects
While many species are known to have evolved specialised colouration to better blend into their environmental backgrounds, there is another important form of camouflage: incorporate your environment into your appearance! This can be seen across the animal kingdom, including in insects and their larvae, sea urchins, and snails. Now, researchers have found some of the…
Sloths’ mysterious teeth decoded
Like most mammals, we humans have a variety of tooth types for different purposes: incisors, for gripping, canines for ripping and tearing, and molars (also pre-molars) for grinding and chewing. But one group, known as the Xenarthra (a particularly excellent name meaning “strange joints”), have very simple dentition, with similar, unrooted teeth which lack enamel and…
Incredible electron microscope GIF gives an amazing sense of scale!
//giphy.com/embed/26BRQY7cHMMVzU6n6 This series of SEM (scanning electron microscope) images shows a tiny crustacean called an amphipod before zooming in on a miniscule diatom resting on its head, and finally picking out the shape of a single bacterium on the surface of the diatom. A truly awesome science GIF! Via Smithsonian mag, GIPHY.
In focus: Launching our new CrocBase project!
We are delighted to announce the launch of the first of several new open access databases from John Hutchinson’s team at the RVC, containing complete CT and MRI scans of almost all our modern crocodile specimens! Our CrocBase is hosted via the Open Science Framework, and contains 53 scan datasets of five crocodilian (AKA crocodylian to scientists) species…
New photographic project captures intricate beauty of insects
A new collection of images launched this week by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History reveal in stunning detail the intricacies of insect anatomy. Each image is a composite of around 8,000 individual photos, with the artist Levon Biss painstakingly adjusting the lighting and settings for each one to best highlight the microscopic details…
Section through an octopus shows the mouth passing through the brain
Octopuses and other cephalopods are well-known for their exceptional intelligence and complex brains, which appear to outstrip all other invertebrates’. But, they work within one strange constraint – like all other molluscs (snails, slugs, oysters and more), the nerve ring at the centre of their nervous system encircles the oesophagus. In cephalopods, this nerve ring…
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