Comparative Anatomy, Doggy Style

Recently, somebody commented to me that I seemed to select dogs that had long noses. I thought about this and decided that while it is true that my dogs have long noses, I didn't select them for that reason. But it's also true that I prefer the look of dogs with long noses, and it's also true that such dogs don't have the teeth, eye, and breathing problems of dogs with smushed faces. Still, that's nothing more than serendipity.

No, I select dogs specifically for their short coat. I've always enjoyed watching fit, short-coated dogs move. You can really see how their bits are put together for good or ill.

Now that I've spent the past few weeks learning the name of every skull and skeletal bone (every bone) and every structure on those bones, and the names of every skeletal muscle, and the origins, insertions, and actions of every skeletal muscle on Felis domesticus, I'm looking at my dogs (and even HB) with an entirely new perspective. 

Learning such a large amount of that kind of information isn't like learning a list of vocabulary words. Sure, making lists is helpful. I always put enormous databases like this into Microsoft Excel because I can then use the software to explore new relationships between subsets of the data (for this to be successful you have to invest quite a lot of time in the data entry component but I've found it often well worth it). But lists and spreadsheets only take you so far. Muscles and bones need to be put in a spatial context. You need to be able to visualize how everything fits together and moves in the living animal--and extrapolate that to Little Blackie laying there belly up in the dissecting tray or to a disarticulated femur or forelimb lying on the lab bench. As it turns out, you also need to be able to visualize (and mentally rotate) three-dimensional objects to be a good geologist--as you might imagine, I've had some practice with this sort of thing.

I took an exam for the anatomy lab today so much of this information is right at the top of my mental pile. Feeling a bit guilty from my study frenzy over the weekend, I rushed home from the exam, fed the dogs then took them straight out for a nice long walk. It was a lovely evening.

As we walked, I found myself staring at them, visualizing the muscles and bones beneath their skin. Not a terribly hard exercise because of their short coats (ah, there, we've turned the conversational corner). I can clearly see Azza's biceps femoris on the outside of her thigh. I can easily trace the outline of her scapula--not because she is thin (she is just the right weight) but because I know where it should be and what it is doing. Mimi and Harry are structured differently in the rear so other muscles are emphasized in their thighs. And their straight fronts and characteristic gait are related to muscles on the outsides of their scapulae that are distinctively large compared to Azza who has a much looser, houndish gait. Sure, they are all dogs and have the same basic set of parts but it was a marvel to see the array of differences between them walking in front of me in real time.