Unit 6 Reflection

In this unit we really reinforced our understanding of Anatomy and Physiology. After all, this unit really reiterated the differences between structure and function within the bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments of the skeletal system. We are first off refreshed with a little taste of Unit 1, where we learned that bones are split between axial and appendicular. Then we learned about the regeneration of bones known as bone remodeling with osteocytes running it, osteoblasts breaking down bone, and osteoclasts rebuilding bone. Different bone types include long, short, flat, and irregular, which all serve different purposes in different parts of our body. We also learned about disorders, or essentially when our "perfect" system has some mishaps or undergoes accidents. Arthritis, osteoporosis, and scoliosis are examples of disorders, and accidents include complete and incomplete fractures. We then dived into a little bit of physics to learn how levers worked to gain an understanding of how our joints worked. We also learned about the different classifications. Functional classifications include synarthroses, amphiarthroses, and diarthroses, which reflects little to no movement, slight movement, and free movement, respectively. Structural classifications are fibrous, cartilagenous, and synovial, which fit relatively into the different functional classifications as well. For example, a synovial joint is almost always diarthroses.

Most of the labs we did in this unit were just investigations into the different bones in our bodies, but one particularly exciting one was the owl pellet lab. It was interesting to discover for our own the different bones in a different animal. Learning how their bones worked and fit together was also very insightful. I am actually really satisfied with the amount of knowledge we hopefully acquired from this unit. I've been thinking for a while now, and I really don't have any questions. I think we learned about this system rather holistically, and I don't see anything that we could've missed. I can't think of anything that I want to learn that I haven't already learned. I'd say good job to myself for learning the material, but I think the credit really goes to our teacher as he was able to fit all the right information into the time allotted for this unit.

I think I've been able to balance all my events rather well, although I could really use some more sleep. 20 time is going to be a blast, but I don't want to reveal anything about that quite yet.

All in all, I learned a lot about the skeletal system, and am really satisfied with everything I've learned.

Owl Pellet Lab

In this lab, my partner and I dissected the pellet of a barn owl, which is essentially the result of regurgitation after the digestion of flesh. The pellet usually contains bones and fur as those are not digested or broken down in the digestion process of the barn owl. We used forceps to dissect the pellets and discovered many bones after clearing away all the fur from them. We deduced that the bones in our pellet were from moles and voles. The first piece of evidence is the piece in the upper right hand corner in the following picture. The only bone that would look like this is the pelvis or hip bone of the mole. Additionally, the other bones in the picture resemble the fibulas and tibias of moles and voles. There are even joints, which look like holes, in them that make them clear to be the lower legs of moles and voles.


For a final touch, we discovered some teeth and some vertebrae. What this tells us is these organisms were definitely not birds, as birds do not have teeth, and their vertebrae is not nearly as large as the ones we found.



1) We noticed that the hip joints were similar to our hip joints as there is a hole for the liquid filled sac to allow for rotation and movement flexibility.
2) In the picture above, the vertebrae resemble ours as they stack with thin layers to prevent friction, just like ours.
3) Although it may seem really obvious, we(humans and moles)both have teeth. This alone, surprisingly, already distinguishes us from birds. Mammals are more closely related to mammals, not birds.


1) We walk on two legs, but moles and voles walk on four legs. Consequently, their hip bones are a lot longer than ours.
2) Again, we walk vertically. So our vertebrae is axial, or up and down. Their vertebrae doesnt exactly have to take as much stress from gravity as we do, so they can be smaller or weaker.
3) Some hip bones look very odd compared to ours, especially the one belonging to the moles. The small, almost rectangular shape really baffles me as it looks literally nothing like our own pelvis.