Category Archives: OsteoMenagerie

OsteoMenagerie 7: The Vertebrae

Posted on February 26, 2014 by JB

Word on the street is that the third polar vortex will hit Michigan later this week. After trudging through this year’s record amounts of snowfall, shivering angrily at the bus stop while the temperature experiments with establishing its true seasonal … Continue reading →

Posted in Osteology, OsteoMenagerie, Vertebrae | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

OsteoMenagerie 6: Tips for Siding the Calcaneus

Posted on August 27, 2013 by JB

The calcaneus, often colloquially referred to as the ‘heel bone’, is the largest tarsal in the human foot. It preserves relatively well archaeologically speaking, appearing both in individual cemetery burials and in commingled graves. The photo below is of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Foot, Osteology, OsteoMenagerie, Siding Tricks, Tarsals, Test Your Skills | Tagged , | 5 Comments

OsteoMenagerie 5: The pisiform

Posted on August 2, 2013 by JB

The pisiform is one of the smallest bones you’re likely to come across when dealing with archaeological remains (though I once found one of the auditory ossicles when excavating a commingled burial site in Portugal – that was an exciting … Continue reading →

Posted in Carpals, Hand, Osteology, OsteoMenagerie | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

OsteoMenagerie 4: The Capitate

Posted on July 4, 2013 by JB

Like all carpals, the capitate possesses a distinctive, irregular shape that makes it easy to identify and side. Unlike the other carpals, however, the capitate happens to look like one of the most notorious villains in cinematic history: Lord Voldemort…Just checking that … Continue reading →

Posted in Carpals, Hand, OsteoMenagerie, Siding Tricks | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

OsteoMenagerie 3: The petrous portion of the temporal bone

Posted on May 27, 2013 by JB

The petrous portion of the temporal bone provides passage for the facial (VII) and vestibulocochlear (VIII) nerves, houses some of the body’s most delicate organs of hearing (including the auditory ossicles) and is one of the densest bones in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Cranium, OsteoMenagerie | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

OsteoMenagerie 2: The Scaphoid

Posted on May 7, 2013 by JB

For this week’s edition of OsteoMenagerie, we have the scaphoid, a bone of the wrist that clearly looks like a snail. Appropriately given last week’s OsteoMenagerie, another term for the scaphoid is the navicular, because it is similarly positioned to … Continue reading →

Posted in Carpals, Hand, OsteoMenagerie, Siding Tricks | Tagged , | 4 Comments

OsteoMenagerie I: The Navicular

Posted on May 2, 2013 by JB

I find that students react to the bewildering variety of bones in the human body with a greater amount of aplomb when you explain things using animal metaphors. I’ve always found some of these visual parallels impossible to unsee after … Continue reading →

Posted in Foot, OsteoMenagerie, Siding Tricks, Tarsals | Tagged , | 6 Comments