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.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/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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When I visited Dinosaur National Monument in October with Brian Engh and Yara Haridy, we spent a decent amount of time checking out DNM 28, a skull and associated bits of Camarasaurus . In particular, I got some shots of the axis (the second cervical vertebra behind the head), and it got me thinking about pneumaticity in this unusual element.

Here’s a skull of a wild boar. Note the loooong face, practically a straight line from the tip of the snout to the top of the back of the head. We shall now proceed through a series of pig skulls with increasingly steep foreheads.