If you’re thinking that it’s about time to look at some sauropod vertebrae from the Salt Wash member of the Morrison Formation, well, you’re gol-durned right, pardner. Let’s ride.

In the last post, we looked at some sauropod vertebrae exposed in cross-section at our field sites in the Salt Wash member of the Morrison Formation. This time, we’re going to do it again! Let’s look at another of my faves from the field, with Thuat Tran’s hand for scale.

Because I’ve worked a lot on the anatomy and evolution of air-filled bones in sauropod dinosaurs, I’ve spent most of my career looking at images like this: {.wp-image-17072 .size-large aria-describedby=“caption-attachment-17072” loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“17072” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2020/01/28/natures-ct-machine/apatosaurus-cervical-ct-wedel-2003b-fig-5/”

Heinrich Mallison sent me this amazing photo, which he found unattributed on Facebook: {.alignnone .size-full .wp-image-17034 loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“17034” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2020/01/27/shoebills-lie-and-its-disgusting/facebook_1579720176756/” orig-file=“https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/facebook_1579720176756.jpg” orig-size=“1080,1093” comments-opened=“1”

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This isn’t new to science, it’s just one of the cool little quirks of human and comparative anatomy that more people should be aware of. Quick-quick background: autonomic (unconscious, involuntary) innervation of the body comes in two flavors, sympathetic and parasympathetic. Sympathetic nerves mostly handle the fight-or-flight response, parasympathetics are feed-breed-and-read.

A student wrote to me to ask where I got the motivation to prep my anatomy lectures. Here’s what I sent back. What works for you?

Otters are a “near-threatened” species in the UK, so it’s a tragedy when one is killed by a car. That said, when a roadkill otter is spotted by a friend and delivered to me five days after Christmas, that goes some way to redeeming the tragedy. So far as I can determine, while otters are protected by law in the UK, there’s nothing saying that a roadkill otter can’t be kept for scientific purposes.

In lieu of any new science today, have some memes, and a wonderful day!

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