Owl Pellet Lab
Today in Mr. Orre's class, we used tweezers and a probe to dissect an owl pellet, which contains various animal's fur and bones. My partner and I found a skull, two mandibles, and a few front/back legs, ribs, in the collection of bones. Since my partner and I found two mandibles, we perceived that there were at least two animals, one being a vole and the other being a mouse. We believed that the first animal was a vole because the skull was about 25 mm long and had a mandible length of about 20 mm which fit the description for the vole's skull; we also found two lower back legs that matched the diagram of the vole's lower back leg. We thought the other mandible belonged to a mouse because it was about 15 mm., which fit the description for the mouse's mandible length.
Similar to humans, both voles and mice possess mandibles, which hold our teeth. We also have a similar appendicular skeleton, with similar parts such as the fibula and tibia. Another similarity that we have with both voles and mice is that they possess craniums, which effectively protects our brain.
However, there are multiple differences as well. For one thing, only the rodents have fur. Also, we noticed that in the leg bones that we found, the tibia and fibula were switched; while the tibia is smaller in humans, it's larger in rodents. Furthermore, rodents have a different hip-bone that we do, because they use it to walk on 4 feet rather than on 2 feet.
Today in Mr. Orre's class, we used tweezers and a probe to dissect an owl pellet, which contains various animal's fur and bones. My partner and I found a skull, two mandibles, and a few front/back legs, ribs, in the collection of bones. Since my partner and I found two mandibles, we perceived that there were at least two animals, one being a vole and the other being a mouse. We believed that the first animal was a vole because the skull was about 25 mm long and had a mandible length of about 20 mm which fit the description for the vole's skull; we also found two lower back legs that matched the diagram of the vole's lower back leg. We thought the other mandible belonged to a mouse because it was about 15 mm., which fit the description for the mouse's mandible length.
Similar to humans, both voles and mice possess mandibles, which hold our teeth. We also have a similar appendicular skeleton, with similar parts such as the fibula and tibia. Another similarity that we have with both voles and mice is that they possess craniums, which effectively protects our brain.
However, there are multiple differences as well. For one thing, only the rodents have fur. Also, we noticed that in the leg bones that we found, the tibia and fibula were switched; while the tibia is smaller in humans, it's larger in rodents. Furthermore, rodents have a different hip-bone that we do, because they use it to walk on 4 feet rather than on 2 feet.
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| Mouse Jawbone |
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| Remaining Fur |
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| Collection of leg bones |
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