In this lab we dissected an owl pellet. An owl pellet is a compact, hard clot that consists of the bones, teeth, fur, claws, feathers, beaks, and other parts of a prey animal that cannot pass through the digestive system of an owl, usually a barn owl. The possible organisms that one might find in an owl pellet are mice, shrews, voles, rats, and birds.
After dissecting our owl pellet, we concluded that the bones most resemble a vole skeleton. Although moles and voles are very similar the bones we concluded that the bones belonged to that of a vole because the scapula had a more defined corner rather than a round edge. The pellet was 4.7cm long and 2.6cm wide. We found a lot of small bones in the pellet that were most likely the voles's phalanges, carpals, metacarpals, tarsals, and metatarsals. There were a lot of little long bones which were most likely the voles's many ribs. There were also many small short and cubodial irregular looking bones that were the voles's vertebrae.
The first major difference between a human skeleton and a vole skeleton when looking at the picture of the whole skeleton is the skull. The cranium is less spherical and more curved forward. Also the teeth that were attached to the mandible and maxilla were more incisor like which is very different than the teeth of a human. Also the eye socket in the crium is to the side versus a human eye socket is more towards the front of the skull. Otherwise the scapula (the shoulder blades), the clavicle (the collarbone), and the vertebrae looks very similar to that of a human's.
The vole's skeleton in the picture is oriented like a human skeleton but it should rather be oriented sideways because a vole's whole vertebrae is more curved than a human's.
I really enjoyed this lab because it was a fun and relaxing task to carve away the fur and feathers away from the bones in the owl pellet form. I had to do it with care because the bones were fragile and could break easily. I really learned a lot from this experiment because it was cool to work with real life bones than fake ones. I even took home the bones.
Pictures:
After dissecting our owl pellet, we concluded that the bones most resemble a vole skeleton. Although moles and voles are very similar the bones we concluded that the bones belonged to that of a vole because the scapula had a more defined corner rather than a round edge. The pellet was 4.7cm long and 2.6cm wide. We found a lot of small bones in the pellet that were most likely the voles's phalanges, carpals, metacarpals, tarsals, and metatarsals. There were a lot of little long bones which were most likely the voles's many ribs. There were also many small short and cubodial irregular looking bones that were the voles's vertebrae.
The first major difference between a human skeleton and a vole skeleton when looking at the picture of the whole skeleton is the skull. The cranium is less spherical and more curved forward. Also the teeth that were attached to the mandible and maxilla were more incisor like which is very different than the teeth of a human. Also the eye socket in the crium is to the side versus a human eye socket is more towards the front of the skull. Otherwise the scapula (the shoulder blades), the clavicle (the collarbone), and the vertebrae looks very similar to that of a human's.
The vole's skeleton in the picture is oriented like a human skeleton but it should rather be oriented sideways because a vole's whole vertebrae is more curved than a human's.
I really enjoyed this lab because it was a fun and relaxing task to carve away the fur and feathers away from the bones in the owl pellet form. I had to do it with care because the bones were fragile and could break easily. I really learned a lot from this experiment because it was cool to work with real life bones than fake ones. I even took home the bones.
Pictures:
No comments:
Post a Comment