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Biology Project - Blog Posts
🦴 Here you go guys, photos of my skeleton (Cat. Cat's skeleton, not mine, lmao) and a couple of fun facts about the process of skeleton-making and animal anatomy 🦴
I put them under the cut just in case some of yall are sensitive and don't want to see it 👇
Felis catus or domestic cat
He was a male british shorthair, a bit fat but not obese. I don't quite remember if we concluded the cause of death during autopsy but the dissection was informative (I'd post the photos but I'm afraid it would be too much 😬)
So here's a photo of mid-process assembling:
We used wires and instant glue. Gotta be careful with this stuff cuz it sticks to your fingers like crazy (and yes, there's a cow leg lying around in the background).
The one who was assembling was yours truly and I wasted SO MUCH TIME looking at the anatomy textbook to set the pose and limbs properly, but in the end it paid off. Our curator said that it was the most anatomically accurate cat posture out of all cat skeletons our uni museum had (yippee!)
(Also notice how gray the skeleton is compared to the previous photos. That's because when removing meat from the bones, we boil them and they tend to go gray, so in the final stage the skeleton needs to be whitened in hydrogen peroxide)
If you look closely at the skull you might notice that the jaws are not aligned properly — that's because my groupmate glued them the wrong way :p You need to be VERY precise in how you glue stuff, it doesn't separate easy afterwards.
Now see these two small bones right here? They are the collarbones. Fun fact about them is that cats and many other animals either have them reduced in size or don't have them at all! It depends on the species, but the main purpose of their absence is to help animals' front paws move more freely. In case of cats — to be more agile while climbing trees, fitting through small holes or walking on thin surfaces.
So naturally, these tiny bones just... reside in the muscle, not connected to literally anything.
And in this case our skeleton, I dare say, is very special, because, unlike the ones in the museum, it has collarbones in display. While removing the meat we (well, I) decided to not get rid of them and instead come up with a way to somehow include them in the final product. I came up with the idea of gluing them to transparent poles made of UV-curing glue. And as you can see, it worked pretty well 😄
All in all, it was a complicated, long but fun and very interesting process (nothing like my mute swan skeleton). This kitty-cat is gonna live forever in our museum as a display of hard work and dedication 🩷
Mute swan (Cygnus olor)
As promised, photos of our biology project — the full skeleton of a mute swan. If somebody, for whatever reason, is in need of a photos of a swan skeleton — here you go.
A new unique piece for our university's skeleton collection. It was fun making it, though a bit tricky. I learned a lot about mute swans than I ever had in my entire life.
The Ocean AKA Biome Project
The ocean covers up Earth by about 70%
Ah, the ocean.
A place that is just water, fishes swimming around. And if you're lucky, you might see a beautiful and colorful coral reef.
Characteristics of the Ocean:
The temperatures in the ocean are pretty low depending on how deep you go. Anywhere from -40 degrees Fahrenheit to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The coldest parts are the ones closest to the North and South poles.
The average precipitation of the ocean is 100 inches per year if it's average. Oceans also carry most of Earth's rain because the ocean is large and the water cycle runs quicker on oceans because oceans are made of water.
The wind in the ocean is pretty harsh because it's mostly happening on the surface, hence why fish tend to go with the currents of the ocean.
Yes, oceans do have seasons. Because it is caused by cycles in evaporation and precipitation that change in the weird thing known as the global weather cycle.
Plants in the ocean:
Seaweed is a plant near the surface parts of the ocean. The entire species adapted by evolving roots tough enough to avoid the ocean´s strong currents, but light enough to produce seeds.
Good seaweed.
Mermaid's wine glass is an type of algae that is one huge cell that is native in the Caribbean and southern Floridan oceans. This species adapted by evolving to grow on small rocks and coral.
Halimeda is an type of algae that is native in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef. This species of algae has evolved by becoming more tolerant of growing on dead plants and sand.
Carrageenan moss is a type of red algae that grows on the shores of Ireland, Scotland, and Britain. This species of algae evolved to persevere the cold weather of the British Islands by keeping it's roots within the rocky shores.
Animals in the Ocean:
Humpback whales are aquatic mammals that feed in the polar regions of the ocean and migrate to more tropical waters to reproduce. This species adapted to their environment by resting at the surface horizontally to prevent water going into their blowholes because they still need land air, even though they swim way more than they ever walk.
Pacific Oysters are saltwater mollusks that are native in the Pacific coasts of Asia. However, they can also be bred in North America, Australia, Europe, and New Zealand. This species evolved to stick tightly onto rocks with algae via their suctions that they have on their inner bodies.
An average Pacific Oyster
The Blue Tang is an blue and black fish that is native in the reefs of the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, to name a few. This species evolved a poison and brighter colors to deter predators from consuming it or any of its offspring.
The Red Comb Star is a starfish native to the East Atlantic Ocean near the Mediterranean. This species has evolved little combs that stick onto the ocean floor and catch mollusks at the same time.
Threats to the biome:
Yep, you already know the threats. But I'm going to explain them anyways.
A ton of plastic is thrown in the ocean. One of the reasons why is because of littering. Plastic is a lot more lightweight, but that doesn't stop the wind, rain, or people from throwing them into rivers, drains that lead directly into the ocean, or anywhere that isn't the recycling bin. So imagine a pile of plastic in the ocean with turtles chocking on plastic bags and fish eating the microplastics. This is what you see on the surface.
This is only the surface level. The cute turtles and their babies could eat some of this plastic stuff and die!
Oil from man-made oil platforms can spill out into the ocean, or the oil could spill from recreational boats run by people too careless about the environment. This is a threat because the oil could suffocate the many water-breathing ecosystem and the community of different species living there. Don't believe me? Look up the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010 on Google.
Why You Should Visit:
As long as you are wearing non-faulty scuba gear, then you are gonna have a good time. Because there are a ton of coral reefs with a community of unique fish living in the coral crevices. You can hear the whales sing their majestic songs and the dolphins chirp and play. You can even look at the little seaweed plants float with the current.
Citations:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0967026042000202163
