I have finally finished preparing two bones that could be in a textbook if any was ever written about Bernie. One is the forth braincase - a great bone. It is 30% larger than the previous one, and in great shape. I prepared out the rock that is in the center of the bone as much as possible. This illustrates how that branch of the brain looked. I also prepared out two of the larger nerve passages (one on each side) though I don't know which nerve it would be. The Occipital Condyle (where the backbone attaches to the skull) and the Foramen Magnum (here the spinal cord comes out of the skull) are very strange. The OC is round with a depression in the middle. It is like a ball-and-socket joint found in a lot of reptiles, but it's reversed! the socket is on the skull side, not the backbone side. Huh? And the FM is very large and not round out all. Double Huh??
The second bone is a centrum with the attached neural arch. This is only the second bone pair we have found, as normally the neural arches separate from the centrums at the cartilage joint. This bone pair is not only complete, it has the bumps on the side where the ribs connect to the backbone [diapophysis and parapophysis] and the bumps where the neural arch connects to the ones before and behind [anterior and posterior zygapophyses]. Very nice bumps - I really need to know how to pronounce the names. Both of these bones will be scanned next at Century High school after spring break.
So here are some pictures, the result of six weeks of work, 3 days per week:
First the forth braincase by itself:
Next, the third and forth braincases side-by-side
Last of all the Centrum-Neural Arch pair:
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