Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week

I made these back in the day. The idea was that you could print them out and have them along while dissecting bird necks, so you could draw on the muscles.

It’s basically one drawing of an ostrich vertebra, morphed in GIMP and stacked to simulate articulation. All of the ones in this post show the vertebrae in left lateral view. If you need right views, flip ’em in GIMP or heck, I think even Windows Explorer will do that for you. The one above has dorsal views in the top row, lateral view in the middle row, and ventral views in the bottom row.

Here’s a sheet with two rows in lateral view, the idea being that you draw on the more superficial multi-segment muscles on one row, and the deeper single- or two-segment muscles on the other row.

A version with 12 vertebrae, so you can map out the often complicated patterns of origins and insertions in the really long muscles. How complicated? Well, check out this rhea neck with the M. longus colli dorsalis and M. longus colli ventralis fanned out.

That’s all. Have fun!