We are back after a break! And we have a nice series of posts planned already from numerous guest writers! To kick things off, let’s get hip to bone structure. This week’s post is from Diogo M. Geraldes, PhD CEng MIMechE MEng; a biomedical engineer in London. If you would like to write for Anatomy…
Tag: bones
#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: 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…
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…
#ThrowbackThursday individual bone cells from ‘Lucy’ tell the story of her growth
This rather abstract-looking image shows a tiny patch (around 110 micrometres across) of an ancient hominid femur. ‘Lucy’ is one of the the oldest and probably the most famous early human-like primate, belonging to the species Australopithecus afarensis. She lived around 3.2 million years ago in sub-Saharan Africa, and her remains were discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia….
Manakin birds have evolved bones and muscles adapted for elaborate mating displays
Manakins are a group of small passarine birds found across Central and South America. They are known for their often dramatic and noisy mating displays from males of the group, particularly movements of the wings. Wing snapping, when the male ‘claps’ the wings together behind him to produce a sharp noise, is observed in several…
#FossilFriday: A four-legged snake from Brazil points to the origins of modern snakes
It sounds like a contradiction, but palaeontologists from the UK and Germany have discovered a snake with legs! This stunning fossil, found in Brazil, dates from the time of the dinosaurs in the early Cretaceous period, which began more than 145 million years ago. The new species, Tetrapodophis [meaning four-legged] amplectus, has the characteristic anatomical features of a snake,…
#fossilfriday: Eudibamus, an early parareptile that shows adaptations to bipedal running
Our chosen fossil today is Eudibamus cursoris,which was first discovered in Germany and dated at 290 millions years old. This ancient parareptile (not a dinosaur, but appearing much earlier) was just 26 cm long and lived among the early amniotes in the early Permian. At this time, terrestrial vertebrates had rapidly diversified but were almost universally constrained…
In Focus: Can golden moles hear the earth move with a Thor-like ‘hammer’?
The golden moles (Chrysochloridae) are a group of silky and rather endearing group of mammals resembling, but distinct from, the true moles (talpids). Indeed, they are more closely related to elephants and manatees than to moles, shrews, rodents or other seemingly similar animals. They share many features with moles, such as adaptations to burrowing, and inhabit…
Cartilage and encroaching bone in the developing mouse skeleton
This shot of the dorsal neck of a developing mouse embryo visually shows the process of skeletal growth found in all bony vertebrates. The widespread blue stain (Alcian blue) reveals the extensive cartilaginous blueprint for the growing skeleton, which extends by the division of chondrocytes (cartilage-producing cells) guided by signalling molecules across the embryo. The…
Rock-climbing cavefish ‘walks’ like a salamander
One of our interests at the RVC is examining the early history of tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) and how their ancestors made the transition from water to land. Some studies have examined species of living fishes that can move on land, such as mudskippers and lungfish, but although they are able to make do using their…
#ThrowbackThursday: Reconstructions show that human brains may have evolved more recently than we thought
The human brain may have evolved much faster and more recently than previously thought, researchers suggest from reconstruction of hominid skulls. By scanning the skull of Australopithecus sediba, one of the earliest complete hominid skeletons, scientists could reconstruct the shape and size of the brain from an endocast of the cranium. Essentially, this means they could use the…
Anatomy To You 