It came from my desk
March 8, 2012
I was putting a new card in my camera and needed some test photos, so I shot what was on my desk: some random doodles from discussions with various folks, and an ostrich cervical.
I love my job.
Bonus SV-POW!bucks to the first person to decipher the diagram on the lower left.
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
March 8, 2012 at 8:01 am
Air sacs evolution?
March 8, 2012 at 9:05 am
damn. Too slow on the buzzer.
March 8, 2012 at 9:06 am
My second guess would be an energetic academic sperm busily attempting to enter the hellish egg of scientific publishing.
March 8, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Air sacs evolution?
Nope, but you’re on the right track. It is something that I’ve discussed a zillion times here and in my papers, but I don’t think I’ve ever illustrated before.
March 8, 2012 at 5:35 pm
process of penetration… wazzicalled.
fenestration?
March 9, 2012 at 6:22 am
We have a winner! Yes, it is supposed to be the process of pneumatization: a bone, nourished by a blood vessel (the squiggly thing on the right), being discovered by a diverticulum that followed that blood vessel and then burrowed inside.
I didn’t think about it at the time I took the picture, but everything in it is related. The diagram at upper right is a simple dorsal or ventral view of cervical ribs attaching to a vertebra, from a completely separate conversation. The ostrich vertebra has cervical ribs, is pneumatic, and represents an avian dinosaurian ornithodiran archosaur, so it embodies concepts from all three diagrams.
March 9, 2012 at 6:25 am
Oh, and since we’re all up in Elsevier’s business these days, I award you 2 billion SV-POW!bucks. You may now pay off your shareholders, buy some legislators, and start charging $30 a pop for people to view this post.