What half a horse head looks like
February 6, 2013
Continuing the recent theme. We’re not giving this a “Things to Make and Do” header because the spirit of that category is to showcase anatomical preparations that average people could do in the comfort of their own homes and gardens (provided they can get hold of dead wallabies, bear skulls, etc.), and freezing and band-sawing a horse is probably outside that envelope for almost everyone (I hadn’t though of that when I posted the gator!).
In the spirit of MYDHHH:
This ain’t mine, it’s a teaching specimen from our vet school, which has a no-kill policy. All of the animal cadavers used in the anatomy labs are donated by the owners at the ends of the animals’ natural lives. So no animals were harmed in the making of this science.
But I wish it was mine. And as long as I’m dreaming, I’d like a pony. Anyone want to go halvesies?
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
February 6, 2013 at 12:05 pm
What a beautiful piece of artwork that cleaned-up version is, on its plain white background.
February 8, 2013 at 9:42 pm
The nasal cavity is as big as the mouth!
I don’t understand what’s going on above the larynx. Is that a huge pharynx with bits of tissue dangling into it?
February 9, 2013 at 12:16 am
I think so. It probably includes the guttural pouch, which is a weird diverticulum. See Darren’s Tet Zoo post for more.
April 2, 2013 at 4:19 pm
[…] in contrast, the condyles of horse cervicals do nestle in their corresponding cotyles – very neatly. And the distressing thing is that, to the best of our knowledge, there are no […]
November 8, 2013 at 8:36 am
[…] birds). More interestingly, among mammals the cartilage is twice as thick in camels as in horses. In the horse, the condyles are deeply inserted into the cotyles of the preceding vertebrae; but in camels, they don’t reach even the lip of the cotyle. This should worry us, as horse […]
August 28, 2018 at 1:05 am
[…] Another difficulty with this interpretation of horizontality is that it can make the neural canal jagged. Consider a sequence of vertebrae oriented as in part A, all at the same height: the neural canal would rise upwards along the length of each vertebra, before plunging down again on transitioning from the front of one to the back of the next. This is not something we would expect to see in a living animal: see for example the straight line of the neural canal in our hemisected horse head(*). […]
November 8, 2018 at 12:17 pm
[…] dependent on soft tissue that doesn’t fossilise. Consider for example the difference between horse necks (above) and camel necks […]
December 4, 2018 at 2:18 am
[…] What half a horse head looks like […]