Latest news with #anatomy
ABC News
5 days ago
- Science
- ABC News
Long-lost photos of extinct butterfly bandicoot found in museum storeroom
Rohan Long was sifting through century-old archives of an anatomy professor when he came across a curious series of black and white photos of landscapes and native mammals. "They stood out to me because they were a bit older than most of the other objects that were there," Mr Long, curator of the University of Melbourne's Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, said. He recognised the photos were a continuation of a previously discovered series taken (or orchestrated) by the anatomist and naturalist Frederic Wood Jones in the 1920s. But he had no idea just how significant these images were, especially two depicting bandicoots. One was a side profile portrait of a living adult, the other a heavily painted-over photo of a juvenile nestled in a human hand. Mr Long was perplexed by the species description written on the back of the frames by Professor Jones. "He'd used a three-part scientific name [Perameles myosura notina]," Mr Long said. "It just made it more confusing because that combination of names is not found anywhere today. So I really was completely stumped." Mr Long sent the images to mammalogy curator Kenny Travouillon at the Western Australian Museum, who immediately realised they portrayed an extinct species of bandicoot he and a colleague described in 2018. They named it the Nullarbor barred or butterfly bandicoot (Perameles papillon) due to the distinctive butterfly-shaped patch on its rump, Dr Travouillon said. As well as showing the animal's ear markings and unique pattern of barred fur, one of the photos was also linked to a location: "Ooldea" in the Nullarbor region. Mr Long, who'd always been fascinated by historically extinct species, was stoked to discover the only known photos of the animal. With further digging, he came across another photo of the bandicoot hiding in plain sight, but misidentified. It was first printed in a newspaper in 1924 but the original glass slide, which is kept at the South Australian Museum, was simply labelled "bandicoot". "[The three images] are amazingly significant because they depict living representatives of a species that's now extinct," Mr Long said. So what happened to the bandicoots in the photographs, and their species as a whole? Delving into historical museum correspondence and the writings of Professor Jones provides some answers. Professor Jones, an Englishman, taught human anatomy at the University of Adelaide in 1919. He was also interested in the anatomy and ecology of Australian animals and wrote a series of influential books called The Mammals of South Australia. Perameles myosura notina was referred to as a Nullarbor form of what was then thought to be one barred bandicoot species (now understood to be several) that lived from southern Western Australia to east of Adelaide. But in the 1920s, when his books were published, this overarching species of barred bandicoots was seemingly restricted to the Nullarbor because of factors associated with European colonisation. The professor, who was was concerned by Australia's staggering loss of mammals even by the 1920s, believed all barred bandicoots of southern Australia were about to be wiped out entirely. So he tried breeding them. "He had a shed at the University of Adelaide that was his little menagerie, and he used to breed marsupials and keep marsupials and other animals on the grounds," Mr Long said. Live butterfly bandicoot specimens collected by traditional owners on the Nullarbor were given to the remote train station master at Ooldea Siding, who sent them to Adelaide. "Often when you trace back to where that animal actually came from, it's been collected by an Aboriginal person," Mr Long said. "And they were very rarely, if ever, acknowledged by name." Many of the bandicoots didn't make it to Adelaide alive. They fought each other to death, Professor Jones wrote: Although they are extremely gentle when kept as pets, they are desperately pugnacious among themselves. On one occasion eight live specimens were sent from Ooldea. All eight were dead and almost devoid of hair when they arrived in Adelaide. But in the bandicoot corpse pouches were four young, two males and two females from different litters. They also seemed to be dead, but were revived. Unfortunately, when they were older, one female killed the other, then fatally injured her first breeding partner. When she had babies with the other male, she killed and ate most of them "even when they were grown to half their adult size", Professor Jones wrote. Unlike other bandicoot species, butterfly bandicoot females are 20 per cent larger than males, Dr Travouillon said. "So the females were making the decisions about the breeding rather than the males, and they were very, very aggressive compared to other species of bandicoots." Mr Long believes the photographs were probably of the butterfly bandicoots raised by Professor Jones but none of the animals moved with him to Melbourne in 1930. And just a few years later, the butterfly bandicoot was extinct. Thirty-four mammal species are believed to have gone extinct since European colonisation in Australia. And researchers didn't even know the butterfly bandicoot had disappeared until Dr Travouillon described it as a separate species after coming across specimens in museums around the world. The butterfly bandicoot likely fell victim to foxes, which caused a wave of extinctions as the predator moved westward across Australia, Dr Travouillon said. "They [butterfly bandicoots] should have gone extinct in 1910, but they managed to survive until the 1930s. "And I suspect it's because [the species] is so much more aggressive and it's also got a very unusual way of escaping." Professor Jones wrote that, when alarmed, the butterfly bandicoot would "pause, and then, in an instant, spring into the air and vanish in the most remarkable manner" instead of just speeding away like other species. Dr Travouillon thinks this behaviour might have confused foxes, allowing the butterfly bandicoot to last longer than other small mammals in Australia. One lesson from the loss of the butterfly bandicoot is the importance of examining museum specimens, according to Dr Travouillon. By looking at collections around the world, scientists can discover still-living species in need of conservation help. And even though the butterfly bandicoot is gone, knowing more about its life history could help with future rewilding efforts. Genetic work has found the butterfly bandicoot branched off 3 million years ago from extinct desert bandicoots and still-living Shark Bay bandicoots (Perameles bougainville). Dr Travouillon said species related to extinct animals could be introduced into areas the latter once lived to recover the ecosystem. For instance, mammals that dig holes, such as bandicoots, play a vital role in sowing seeds. "Once they're gone … there's no more holes where plant seeds can accumulate, and the seeds actually need that to germinate," Dr Travouillon said. "So bringing back a [similar species] to do that job is really beneficial for the environment. It will help the plants to come back." Mr Long believes people should see the rediscovered photos of the butterfly bandicoot as a reminder of what we stand to lose. "It's worth remembering and getting to know these animals, even after their extinction," he said. "Because it's part of a broader narrative, which is pretty important for us to be aware of in 2025. "They're poorly known because they went extinct … they're gone because of the actions of the European colonists of Australia." Mr Long's words echo the thoughts and sentiments of Professor Jones from his mammal handbooks 100 years ago: Australia has a heritage for which it must accept responsibility. It must be prepared to conserve the living, to collect and preserve the dead, and to make provision for the proper study of the fauna in all its aspects.
CBC
21-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
U of Sask. researchers are using VR to help Indigenous students become interested in their health
Two researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are making the study of anatomy more interesting for kids. They have joined Whitecap Dakota First Nation to create a framework for teaching health education using virtual reality.
CNA
21-07-2025
- Health
- CNA
Associate Professor Faith Chia on enhanced medical school curriculum
Dissection of actual human bodies will soon be mandatory for medical students at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. It believes the hands-on experience will make a vital difference to their knowledge of anatomy. Associate Professor Faith Chia, Vice-Dean of Education at NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, discusses how the enhanced curriculum that makes cadaveric dissection mandatory could improve anatomy training for students. She also shares why the institution is implementing this, on top of using virtual tools in medical education, even as other countries move away from the dissection of human bodies.
CNA
21-07-2025
- Health
- CNA
NTU to be first local medical school to make cadaveric dissection a mandatory module
An undergraduate medical school will make dissection of human bodies a mandatory module of its curriculum. The Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Nanyang Technological University will be the first in Singapore to do so. This will start from the academic year of 2026, to give its third-year medical students hands-on experience and expand their knowledge in anatomy. Nadine Yeam reports.
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
The real Da Vinci Code is SOLVED after 500 years: Dentist cracks geometric secret hidden in Vitruvian Man
Some 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci sketched what he believed was the perfectly proportioned male body. The drawing, called the Vitruvian Man, is one of the most famous anatomical drawings in the world. The complex interplay of art, mathematics and human anatomy has puzzled scientists for hundreds of years. But now, a London-based dentist claims to have worked out the secret to how da Vinci perfectly placed the human figure inside a circle and a square. Dr Rory Mac Sweeney, a qualified dentist with a degree in genetics, says the key to unlocking the drawing's geometric code lies in the use of an 'equilateral triangle' between the man's legs, mentioned in manuscript notes that accompany the drawing. The researcher discovered this isn't just a random shape – and in fact reflects the same design blueprint frequently found in nature. Analysis reveals this shape corresponds to Bonwill's triangle, an imaginary equilateral triangle in dental anatomy that governs the optimal performance of the human jaw. This suggests da Vinci understood the ideal design of the human body centuries before modern science, Dr Sweeney said. Dr Sweeney said the key to unlocking the drawing's geometric code lies in the specific mention of an 'equilateral triangle' drawn between the man's legs (left) which corresponds to a design blueprint found in nature - including the human jaw (right) When this triangle is used to construct the drawing it produces a specific ratio between the size of the square and the circle. Dr Sweeney has discovered that this ratio – 1.64 – is almost identical to a 'special blueprint number' – 1.6333 – that appears over and over again in nature for building the strongest, most efficient structures. This same number is found in the geometry of a perfectly functioning human jaw, the unique proportions of the human skull, the atomic structure of super-strong crystals and the tightest way to pack spheres. 'We've all been looking for a complicated answer, but the key was in Leonardo's own words,' Dr Sweeney, who graduated from the School of Dental Science at Trinity College in Dublin, said. 'He was pointing to this triangle all along. What's truly amazing is that this one drawing encapsulates a universal rule of design. 'It shows that the same "blueprint" nature uses for efficient design is at work in the ideal human body. 'Leonardo knew, or sensed, that our bodies are built with the same mathematical elegance as the universe around us.' According to the dentist, the discovery is significant because it shows that Vitruvian Man is far more than just a beautiful piece of art. Leonardo da Vinci is also known for his magnificent artworks such as the Mona Lisa, which hangs at the Louvre Museum in Paris (pictured) Who was Leonardo da Vinci? Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci, is one of the greatest minds of the last millennium. The polymath was a driving force behind the Renaissance and dabbled in invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been attributed with the development of the parachute, helicopter and tank. He was born in Italy in 1452 and died at the age of 67 in France. After being born out of wedlock, the visionary worked in Milan, Rome, Bologna and Venice. His most recognisable works include the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, Vitruvian Man. Another piece of artwork, dubbed the Salvator Mund, sold for a world record $450.3 million (£343 million) at a Christie's auction in New York in 2017. Instead, it is the work of 'scientific genius that was centuries ahead of its time', he said. The pen-and-ink drawing of the nude male in two different poses, with arms and legs enclosed within a circle and square, was created by the Renaissance polymath around 1490. It was partly influenced by the writings of Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who believed the human body has harmonious proportions. He proposed that a human figure could fit perfectly inside a circle and a square but provided no mathematical framework for achieving this geometric relationship. Da Vinci, who solved the puzzle, never explicitly explained how. For the last 500 years scientists have come up with numerous theories and ideas but none have matched the actual measurements. The study, published in the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, reads: 'For over 500 years, Leonardo da Vinci's geometric system for establishing the precise relationship between the circle and square in his Vitruvian Man drawing has remained a mystery. 'This paper demonstrates that Leonardo's explicit textual reference to 'an equilateral triangle' between the figure's legs provides his construction method and reveals the anatomical foundation for his proportional choices. 'The analysis shows that Leonardo's equilateral triangle corresponds to Bonwill's triangle in dental anatomy—the foundational geometric relationship governing optimal human jaw function.' It concludes: 'The findings position Vitruvian Man as both artistic masterpiece and prescient scientific hypothesis about the mathematical relationships governing ideal human proportional design.' Scientists have previously compared the Vitruvian Man with nearly 64,000 physically fit men and women and discovered da Vinci was to anatomical measurements of the modern-day human. The team found the groin height, shoulder width and thigh length of today's measurements were 10 percent within those of the Vitruvian Man. However, the head height, arm span, chest and knee height are slightly more than da Vinci's estimates. THE MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI Leonardo da Vinci is best known for his stunning artwork but the Italian Renaissance painter had many talents. He was also a sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. The Mona Lisa is his most famous and most parodied portrait while his painting of The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon - being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts. Only around fifteen of his paintings survive because of his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination. Leonardo is also revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, and the double hull, also outlining a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. He made important discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on later science.
