Plate 4 showing engraving of side view of 'the Bones of the Human Body or Trunk' from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.Medical Education

 

Image of bones/skeleton torso

Plate 9 from Henri Scoutetten, La methode ovalaire; ou, nouvelle methode pour amputer dans les articulations (1827). Lithographs showing how to amputate the big toe.

 

Henri Scoutetten (1799-1871) was a French military surgeon, historian and phrenologist., who also wrote about clubfoot, the Berlin cholera epidemic of 1831, hydrotherapy and chloral.

 

SPEC P8.27/oversize in Special Collections and Archives, the University of Liverpool Library.

 

Medical Education

 

Foot image

Colour lithograph of the male pelvis (plate 12) from Johnston's students' atlas of the bones and ligaments by Charles W. Cathcart and Francis M. Caird (Edinburgh: Johnston, 1885).

 

Part of the anatomical atlases collection in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 5. With signature on the titlepage, Herbert Brown, 19 Grove Rd, Wallasey.

 

Pelvis

Diagram to accompany plate 8 (skeleton and rhinoceros) from Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the skeleton and muscles of the human body. (London : printed by H. Woodfall for John and Paul Knapton, 1749).

 

Diagram lettered in English and Greek to provide key to plate 8 engraved by Charles Grignion (1717-1810). Rhinoceros not included.

 

The German anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770) studied in Leiden and Paris, and taught surgery and anatomy in Leiden. He made studies of the bones and muscles in particular, and made pioneering attempts to improve the accuracy of anatomical illustration. He also edited the works of Andreas Vesalius.

 

His large-scale Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani (Leiden, 1747) was published largely at his own expense; the artist and engraver Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759) added the background scenes.The London 1749 edition gives an English translation of the original Latin text.

 

SPEC Anatomy 27(3) from the Anatomical atlases collection, Special Collections and Archives, the University of Liverpool Library (plates only).

  

Images from Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

Bioluminescent click beetle larva (Pyrearinus sp.)

PERU: Madre de Dios

Refugio Amazonas along Tambopata River

22-Nov-2015

J.C. Abbott & K.K. Abbott

Kew Gardens is the world's largest collection of living plants. Founded in 1840 from the exotic garden at Kew Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, UK, its living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over seven million preserved plant specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London's top tourist attractions. In 2003, the gardens were put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

 

Kew Gardens, together with the botanic gardens at Wakehurst Place in Sussex, are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (brand name Kew), an internationally important botanical research and education institution that employs 750 staff, and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

 

The Kew site, which has been dated as formally starting in 1759, though can be traced back to the exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury, consists of 121 hectares (300 acres) of gardens and botanical glasshouses, four Grade I listed buildings and 36 Grade II listed structures, all set in an internationally significant landscape.

 

Kew Gardens has its own police force, Kew Constabulary, which has been in operation since 1847.

 

History

Kew, the area in which Kew Gardens are situated, consists mainly of the gardens themselves and a small surrounding community. Royal residences in the area which would later influence the layout and construction of the gardens began in 1299 when Edward I moved his court to a manor house in neighbouring Richmond (then called Sheen). That manor house was later abandoned; however, Henry V built Sheen Palace in 1501, which, under the name Richmond Palace, became a permanent royal residence for Henry VII. Around the start of the 16th century courtiers attending Richmond Palace settled in Kew and built large houses. Early royal residences at Kew included Mary Tudor's house, which was in existence by 1522 when a driveway was built to connect it to the palace at Richmond. Around 1600, the land that would become the gardens was known as Kew Field, a large field strip farmed by one of the new private estates.

 

The exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury, was enlarged and extended by Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, the widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The origins of Kew Gardens can be traced to the merging of the royal estates of Richmond and Kew in 1772. William Chambers built several garden structures, including the lofty Chinese pagoda built in 1761 which still remains. George III enriched the gardens, aided by William Aiton and Sir Joseph Banks. The old Kew Park (by then renamed the White House), was demolished in 1802. The "Dutch House" adjoining was purchased by George III in 1781 as a nursery for the royal children. It is a plain brick structure now known as Kew Palace.

 

Some early plants came from the walled garden established by William Coys at Stubbers in North Ockendon. The collections grew somewhat haphazardly until the appointment of the first collector, Francis Masson, in 1771. Capability Brown, who became England's most renowned landscape architect, applied for the position of master gardener at Kew, and was rejected.

 

In 1840 the gardens were adopted as a national botanical garden, in large part due to the efforts of the Royal Horticultural Society and its president William Cavendish. Under Kew's director, William Hooker, the gardens were increased to 30 hectares (75 acres) and the pleasure grounds, or arboretum, extended to 109 hectares (270 acres), and later to its present size of 121 hectares (300 acres). The first curator was John Smith.

 

The Palm House was built by architect Decimus Burton and iron-maker Richard Turner between 1844 and 1848, and was the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron. It is considered " the world's most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure." The structure's panes of glass are all hand-blown. The Temperate House, which is twice as large as the Palm House, followed later in the 19th century. It is now the largest Victorian glasshouse in existence. Kew was the location of the successful effort in the 19th century to propagate rubber trees for cultivation outside South America.

 

In February 1913, the Tea House was burned down by suffragettes Olive Wharry and Lilian Lenton during a series of arson attacks in London.[19] Kew Gardens lost hundreds of trees in the Great Storm of 1987. From 1959 to 2007 Kew Gardens had the tallest flagpole in Britain. Made from a single Douglas-fir from Canada, it was given to mark both the centenary of the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the bicentenary of Kew Gardens. The flagpole was removed after damage by weather and woodpeckers.

 

In July 2003, the gardens were put on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

 

Features

Treetop walkway

A new treetop walkway opened in 2008. This walkway is 18 metres (59 ft) high and 200 metres (660 ft) long and takes visitors into the tree canopy of a woodland glade. Visitors can ascend and descend by stairs or by a lift. The floor of the walkway is made from perforated metal and flexes as it is walked upon. The entire structure sways in the wind.

  

Sackler Crossing

The Sackler Crossing bridge, made of granite and bronze, opened in May 2006. Designed by Buro Happold and John Pawson, it crosses the lake and is named in honour of philanthropists Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler.

 

The minimalist-styled bridge is designed as a sweeping double curve of black granite. The sides of the bridge are formed of bronze posts that give the impression, from certain angles, of forming a solid wall whereas from others, and to those on the bridge, they are clearly individual entities that allow a view of the water beyond.

 

The bridge forms part of a path designed to encourage visitors to visit more of the gardens than had hitherto been popular and connects the two art galleries, via the Temperate and Evolution Houses and the woodland glade, to the Minka House and the Bamboo Garden.

 

The crossing won a special award from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2008.

 

Vehicular tour

Kew Explorer is a service that takes a circular route around the gardens, provided by two 72-seater road trains that are fuelled by Calor Gas to minimise pollution. A commentary is provided by the driver and there are several stops.

   

Compost heap

Kew has one of the largest compost heaps in Europe, made from green and woody waste from the gardens and the manure from the stables of the Household Cavalry. The compost is mainly used in the gardens, but on occasion has been auctioned as part of a fundraising event for the gardens.

 

The compost heap is in an area of the gardens not accessible to the public, but a viewing platform, made of wood which had been illegally traded but seized by Customs officers in HMRC, has been erected to allow visitors to observe the heap as it goes through its cycle.

 

Guided walks

Free tours of the gardens are conducted daily by trained volunteers.

 

Plant houses

 

Alpine House

A narrow semicircular building of glass and steel latticework stands at the right, set amid an area of worked rock with a line of deciduous trees in the rear left, under a blue sky filled with large puffy white clouds. In front of it, curving slightly away to the left, is a wooden platform with benches on it and a thin metal guardrail in front of a low wet area with bright red flowers

 

In March 2006, the Davies Alpine House opened, the third version of an alpine house since 1887. Although only 16 metres (52 ft) long the apex of the roof arch extends to a height of 10 metres (33 ft) in order to allow the natural airflow of a building of this shape to aid in the all-important ventilation required for the type of plants to be housed.

 

The new house features a set of automatically operated blinds that prevent it overheating when the sun is too hot for the plants together with a system that blows a continuous stream of cool air over the plants. The main design aim of the house is to allow maximum light transmission. To this end the glass is of a special low iron type that allows 90 per cent of the ultraviolet light in sunlight to pass. It is attached by high tension steel cables so that no light is obstructed by traditional glazing bars.

 

To conserve energy the cooling air is not refrigerated but is cooled by being passed through a labyrinth of pipes buried under the house at a depth where the temperature remains suitable all year round. The house is designed so that the maximum temperature should not exceed 20 °C (68 °F).

 

Kew's collection of Alpine plants (defined as those that grow above the tree-line in their locale – ground level at the poles rising to over 2,000 metres (6,562 feet)), extends to over 7000. As the Alpine House can only house around 200 at a time the ones on show are regularly rotated.

  

The Nash Conservatory

Originally designed for Buckingham Palace, this was moved to Kew in 1836 by King William IV. With an abundance of natural light, the building is used various exhibitions, weddings, and private events. It is also now used to exhibit the winners of the photography competition.

  

Kew Orangery

The Orangery was designed by Sir William Chambers, and was completed in 1761. It measures 28 by 10 metres (92 by 33 ft). It was found to be too dark for its intended purpose of growing citrus plants and they were moved out in 1841. After many changes of use, it is currently used as a restaurant.

  

The Palm House and Parterre

The Palm House (1844–1848) was the result of cooperation between architect Decimus Burton and iron founder Richard Turner,[28] and continues upon the glass house design principles developed by John Claudius Loudon[29][30] and Joseph Paxton. A space frame of wrought iron arches, held together by horizontal tubular structures containing long prestressed cables,[30][31] supports glass panes which were originally[28] tinted green with copper oxide to reduce the significant heating effect. The 19m high central nave is surrounded by a walkway at 9m height, allowing visitors a closer look upon the palm tree crowns. In front of the Palm House on the east side are the Queen's Beasts, ten statues of animals bearing shields. They are Portland stone replicas of originals done by James Woodford and were placed here in 1958.[32]

  

Princess of Wales Conservatory

Kew's third major conservatory, the Princess of Wales Conservatory, designed by architect Gordon Wilson, was opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales in commemoration of her predecessor Augusta's associations with Kew. In 1989 the conservatory received the Europa Nostra award for conservation.[34] The conservatory houses ten computer-controlled micro-climatic zones, with the bulk of the greenhouse volume composed of Dry Tropics and Wet Tropics plants. Significant numbers of orchids, water lilies, cacti, lithops, carnivorous plants and bromeliads are housed in the various zones. The cactus collection also extends outside the conservatory where some hardier species can be found.

 

The conservatory has an area of 4499 square metres. As it is designed to minimise the amount of energy taken to run it, the cooler zones are grouped around the outside and the more tropical zones are in the central area where heat is conserved. The glass roof extends down to the ground, giving the conservatory a distinctive appearance and helping to maximise the use of the sun's energy.

 

During the construction of the conservatory a time capsule was buried. It contains the seeds of basic crops and endangered plant species and key publications on conservation.

 

Rhizotron

 

The Rhizotron

A rhizotron opened at the same time as the "treetop walkway", giving visitors the opportunity to investigate what happens beneath the ground where trees grow. The rhizotron is essentially a single gallery containing a set of large bronze abstract castings which contain LCD screens that carry repeating loops of information about the life of trees.

 

Temperate House

 

Inside the Temperate House

The Temperate House, currently closed for restoration, is a greenhouse that has twice the floor area of the Palm House and is the world's largest surviving Victorian glass structure. When in use it contained plants and trees from all the temperate regions of the world. It was commissioned in 1859 and designed by architect Decimus Burton and ironfounder Richard Turner. Covering 4880 square metres, it rises to a height of 19 metres. Intended to accommodate Kew's expanding collection of hardy and temperate plants, it took 40 years to construct, during which time costs soared. The building was restored during 2014 - 15 by Donald Insall Associates, based on their conservation management plan.

 

There is a viewing gallery in the central section from which visitors were able to look down on that part of the collection.

 

Waterlily House

The Waterlily House is the hottest and most humid of the houses at Kew and contains a large pond with varieties of water lily, surrounded by a display of economically important heat-loving plants. It closes during the winter months.

 

It was built to house the Victoria amazonica, the largest of the Nymphaeaceae family of water lilies. This plant was originally transported to Kew in phials of clean water and arrived in February 1849, after several prior attempts to transport seeds and roots had failed. Although various other members of the Nymphaeaceae family grew well, the house did not suit the Victoria, purportedly because of a poor ventilation system, and this specimen was moved to another, smaller, house.

 

The ironwork for this project was provided by Richard Turner and the initial construction was completed in 1852. The heat for the house was initially obtained by running a flue from the nearby Palm House but it was later equipped with its own boiler.

 

Ornamental buildings

 

The Pagoda

In the south-east corner of Kew Gardens stands the Great Pagoda (by Sir William Chambers), erected in 1762, from a design in imitation of the Chinese Ta. The lowest of the ten octagonal storeys is 15 m (49 ft) in diameter. From the base to the highest point is 50 m (164 ft).

 

Each storey finishes with a projecting roof, after the Chinese manner, originally covered with ceramic tiles and adorned with large dragons; a story is still propagated that they were made of gold and were reputedly sold by George IV to settle his debts. In fact the dragons were made of wood painted gold, and simply rotted away with the ravages of time. The walls of the building are composed of brick. The staircase, 253 steps, is in the centre of the building. The Pagoda was closed to the public for many years, but was reopened for the summer months of 2006 and is now open permanently. During the Second World War holes were cut in each floor to allow for drop-testing of model bombs.

  

The Japanese Gateway (Chokushi-Mon)

Built for the Japan-British Exhibition (1910) and moved to Kew in 1911, the Chokushi-Mon ("Imperial Envoy's Gateway") is a four-fifths scale replica of the karamon (gateway) of the Nishi Hongan-ji temple in Kyoto. It lies about 140 m west of the Pagoda and is surrounded by a reconstruction of a traditional Japanese garden.

  

The Minka House

Following the Japan 2001 festival, Kew acquired a Japanese wooden house called a minka. It was originally erected in around 1900 in a suburb of Okazaki. Japanese craftsmen reassembled the framework and British builders who had worked on the Globe Theatre added the mud wall panels.

 

Work on the house started on 7 May 2001 and, when the framework was completed on 21 May, a Japanese ceremony was held to mark what was considered an auspicious occasion. Work on the building of the house was completed in November 2001 but the internal artefacts were not all in place until 2006.

 

The Minka house is located within the bamboo collection in the west central part of the gardens.

  

Queen Charlotte's Cottage

Within the conservation area is a cottage that was given to Queen Charlotte as a wedding present on her marriage to George III. It has been restored by Historic Royal Palaces and is separately administered by them.

It is open to the public on weekends and bank holidays during the summer.

 

Kew Palace

Kew Palace is the smallest of the British royal palaces. It was built by Samuel Fortrey, a Dutch merchant in around 1631. It was later purchased by George III. The construction method is known as Flemish bond and involves laying the bricks with long and short sides alternating. This and the gabled front give the construction a Dutch appearance.

To the rear of the building is the "Queen's Garden" which includes a collection of plants believed to have medicinal qualities. Only plants that were extant in England by the 17th century are grown in the garden.

The building underwent significant restoration, with leading conservation architects Donald Insall Associates, before being reopened to the public in 2006.

It is administered separately from Kew Gardens, by Historic Royal Palaces.

In front of the palace is a sundial, which was given to Kew Gardens in 1959 to commemorate a royal visit. It was sculpted by Martin Holden and is based on an earlier sculpture by Thomas Tompion, a celebrated 17th century clockmaker.

 

Galleries and Museums

 

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanic Art

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanic Art opened in April 2008, and holds paintings from Kew's and Dr Shirley Sherwood's collections, many of which had never been displayed to the public before. It features paintings by artists such as Georg D. Ehret, the Bauer brothers, Pierre-Joseph Redouté and Walter Hood Fitch. The paintings and drawings are cycled on a six-monthly basis. The gallery is linked to the Marianne North Gallery (see above).

 

Near the Palm House is a building known as "Museum No. 1" (even though it is the only museum on the site), which was designed by Decimus Burton and opened in 1857. Housing Kew's economic botany collections including tools, ornaments, clothing, food and medicines, its aim was to illustrate human dependence on plants. The building was refurbished in 1998. The upper two floors are now an education centre and the ground floor houses the "Plants+People" exhibition which highlights the variety of plants and the ways that people use them.

 

Admission to the galleries and museum is free after paying admission to the gardens. The International Garden Photographer of the Year Exhibition is an annual event with an indoor display of entries during the summer months.

 

The Marianne North Gallery of Botanic Art

The Marianne North Gallery was built in the 1880s to house the paintings of Marianne North, an MP's daughter who travelled alone to North and South America, South Africa and many parts of Asia, at a time when women rarely did so, to paint plants. The gallery has 832 of her paintings. The paintings were left to Kew by the artist and a condition of the bequest is that the layout of the paintings in the gallery may not be altered.

 

The gallery had suffered considerable structural degradation since its creation and during a period from 2008 to 2009 major restoration and refurbishment took place, with works lead by with leading conservation architects Donald Insall Associates. During the time the gallery was closed the opportunity was also taken to restore the paintings to their original condition. The gallery reopened in October 2009.

 

The gallery originally opened in 1882 and is the only permanent exhibition in Great Britain dedicated to the work of one woman.

 

Plant collections

 

The plant collections include the Aquatic Garden, which is near the Jodrell laboratory. The Aquatic Garden, which celebrated its centenary in 2009, provides conditions for aquatic and marginal plants. The large central pool holds a selection of summer-flowering water lilies and the corner pools contain plants such as reed mace, bulrushes, phragmites and smaller floating aquatic species.

 

The Arboretum, which covers over half of the total area of the site, contains over 14,000 trees of many thousands of varieties. The Bonsai Collection is housed in a dedicated greenhouse near the Jodrell laboratory. The Cacti Collection is housed in and around the Princess of Wales Conservatory. The Carnivorous Plant collection is housed in the Princess of Wales Conservatory. The Grass Garden was created on its current site in the early 1980s to display ornamental and economic grasses; it was redesigned and replanted between 1994 and 1997. It is currently undergoing a further redesign and planting. Over 580 species of grasses are displayed.

 

The Herbaceous Grounds (Order Beds) were devised in the late 1860s by Sir Joseph Hooker, then director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, so that botany students could learn to recognise plants and experience at first hand the diversity of the plant kingdom. The collection is organised into family groups. Its name arose because plant families were known as natural orders in the 19th century. Over the main path is a rose pergola built in 1959 to mark the bicentennial of the Gardens. It supports climber and rambling roses selected for the length and profusion of flowering.

 

The Orchid Collection is housed in two climate zones within the Princess of Wales Conservatory. To maintain an interesting display the plants are changed regularly so that those on view are generally flowering. The Rock Garden, originally built of limestone in 1882, is now constructed of Sussex sandstone from West Hoathly, Sussex. The rock garden is divided into six geographic regions: Europe, Mediterranean and Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Asia, North America, and South America. There are currently 2,480 different "accessions" growing in the garden.

 

The Rose Garden, based upon original designs by William Nesfield, is behind the Palm House, and was replanted between 2009 and 2010 using the original design from 1848. It is intended as an ornamental display rather than a collection of a particularly large number of varieties. Other collections and specialist areas include the rhododendron dell, the azalea garden, the bamboo garden, the juniper collection, the berberis dell, the lilac garden, the magnolia collection, and the fern collection.

  

The Palm House and lake to Victoria Gate

The world's smallest water-lily, Nymphaea thermarum, was saved from extinction when it was grown from seed at Kew, in 2009.

 

Herbarium

The Kew herbarium is one of the largest in the world with approximately 7 million specimens used primarily for taxonomic study. The herbarium is rich in types for all regions of the world, especially the tropics.

 

Library and archives

The library and archives at Kew are one of the world's largest botanical collections, with over half a million items, including books, botanical illustrations, photographs, letters and manuscripts, periodicals, and maps. The Jodrell Library has been merged with the Economic Botany and Mycology Libraries and all are now housed in the Jodrell Laboratory.

 

Forensic horticulture

Kew provides advice and guidance to police forces around the world where plant material may provide important clues or evidence in cases. In one famous case the forensic science department at Kew were able to ascertain that the contents of the stomach of a headless corpse found in the river Thames contained a highly toxic African bean.

 

Economic Botany

 

The Sustainable Uses of Plants group (formerly the Centre for Economic Botany), focus on the uses of plants in the United Kingdom and the world's arid and semi-arid zones. The Centre is also responsible for curation of the Economic Botany Collection, which contains more than 90,000 botanical raw materials and ethnographic artefacts, some of which are on display in the Plants + People exhibit in Museum No. 1. The Centre is now located in the Jodrell Laboratory.

 

Jodrell Laboratory

The original Jodrell laboratory, named after Mr T. J. Phillips Jodrell who funded it, was established in 1877 and consisted of four research rooms and an office. Originally research was conducted into plant physiology but this was gradually superseded by botanical research. In 1934 an artists' studio and photographic darkroom were added, highlighting the importance of botanical illustration. In 1965, following increasing overcrowding, a new building was constructed and research expanded into seed collection for plant conservation. The biochemistry section also expanded to facilitate research into secondary compounds that could be derived from plants for medicinal purposes. In 1994 the centre was expanded again, tripling in size, and a decade later it was further expanded by the addition of the Wolfson Wing.

 

Kew Constabulary

Main article: Kew Constabulary

The gardens have their own police force, Kew Constabulary, which has been in operation since 1847. Formerly known as the Royal Botanic Gardens Constabulary, it is a small, specialised constabulary of two sergeants and 12 officers, who patrol the grounds in a green painted electric buggy. The Kew Constables are attested under section 3 of the Parks Regulation Act 1872, which gives them the same powers as the Metropolitan Police within the land belonging to the gardens.

 

Media

A number of films, documentaries and short videos have been made about Kew Gardens.

 

They include:

 

a short colour film World Garden by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth in 1942

three series of A Year at Kew (2007), filmed for BBC television and released on DVD

Cruickshank on Kew: The Garden That Changed the World, a 2009 BBC documentary, presented by Dan Cruickshank, exploring the history of the relationship between Kew Gardens and the British Empire

David Attenborough's 2012 Kingdom of Plants 3D

a 2003 episode of the Channel 4 TV series Time Team, presented by Tony Robinson, that searched for the remains of George III's palace

a 2004 episode of the BBC Four series Art of the Garden which looked at the building of the Great Palm House in the 1840s.

"Kew on a Plate", a TV programme showing the kinds of produce grown at Kew Gardens and how they can be prepared in a kitchen.

In 1921 Virginia Woolf published her short story "Kew Gardens", which gives brief descriptions of four groups of people as they pass by a flowerbed.

 

Access and transport

 

Elizabeth Gate

Kew Gardens is accessible by a number of gates. Currently, there are four gates into Kew Gardens that are open to the public: the Elizabeth Gate, which is situated at the west end of Kew Green, and was originally called the Main Gate before being renamed in 2012 to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II; the Brentford Gate, which faces the River Thames; the Victoria Gate (named after Queen Victoria), situated in Kew Road, which is also the location of the Visitors' Centre; and the Lion Gate, also situated in Kew Road.

 

Other gates that are not open to the public include Unicorn Gate, Cumberland Gate and Jodrell Gate (all in Kew Road) and Isleworth Gate (facing the Thames).

  

Victoria Gate

Kew Gardens station, a London Underground and National Rail station opened in 1869 and served by both the District line and the London Overground services on the North London Line, is the nearest train station to the gardens – only 400 metres (1,300 ft) along Lichfield Road from the Victoria Gate entrance. Built by the London and South Western Railway, the Historic England listed building is one of the few remaining original 19th-century stations on the North London Line, and the only station on the London Underground with a pub on the platform (though the platform entrance is now closed off). Kew Bridge station, on the other side of the Thames, 800 metres from the Elizabeth Gate entrance via Kew Bridge, is served by South West Trains from Clapham Junction and Waterloo.

 

London Buses route 65, between Ealing Broadway and Kingston, stops near the Lion Gate and Victoria Gate entrances; route 391, between Fulham and Richmond, stops near Kew Gardens station; while routes 237 and 267 stop at Kew Bridge station.

 

London River Services operate from Westminster during the summer, stopping at Kew Pier, 500 metres (1,600 ft) from Elizabeth Gate. Cycle racks are located just inside the Victoria Gate, Elizabeth Gate and Brentford Gate entrances. There is a 300-space car park outside Brentford Gate, reached via Ferry Lane, as well as some free, though restricted, on-street parking on Kew Road.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kew_Gardens

Engraved heraldic dedication to Richard Mead, with skeletons, from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

Medical Education

 

old book image

monument to academitian Ivan Pavlov and Pavlov dog of 1930s is the work of Bespalov, architect of early buildings of Pavlov Physiological institute of Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in Koltushi, Leningrad region.

Anatomy

Detail from plate 7 - engraved anatomical illustration of the bones of the thigh, leg and foot from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

Images from Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses :

London :Printed by Jo. Martyn and Ja. Allestry, printers to the Royal Society ... ,1665.

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/786534

Fig. 2, plate 9 from Henri Scoutetten, La methode ovalaire; ou, nouvelle methode pour amputer dans les articulations (1827). Lithographs showing how to amputate the big toe.

 

Henri Scoutetten (1799-1871) was a French military surgeon, historian and phrenologist., who also wrote about clubfoot, the Berlin cholera epidemic of 1831, hydrotherapy and chloral.

 

SPEC P8.27/oversize in Special Collections and Archives, the University of Liverpool Library.

 

Medical Education

 

Foot image

Titlepage of De Humani corporis fabrica libri septem (Seven books on the fabric of the human body): a full page woodcut illustration of a dissection, with a portrait of Vesalius.

 

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) was a medic, army surgeon, professor of anatomy and court physician. This work, first published in 1543, was both renowned and vilified for questioning the anatomical teaching of Galen (AD129-c.200). It has remained one of the most important works in the history of medicine, both for the scientific observations on which it is based and the accuracy of the illustrations.

 

The Liverpool copy (SPEC H99.38/oversize) was the gift of Mrs Stella Permewan in memory of her son William Muspratt Permewan in 1948. There are signatures of earlier, possibly contemporary, owners on the titlepage.

 

Medical Education

 

book

Fig.1 plate 14 - engraved anatomical illustration of the 'hind muscles of the neck and trunk on the right side' from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

 

Medical Education

Plate 5 (shoulder) from George Viner ELLIS's Illustrations of dissections in a series of original coloured plates the size of life, representing the dissection of the human body by George Viner Ellis and G. H. Ford London: James Walton, 1867).

 

This volume of lifesize plates states 'The drawings are from nature and on stone by Mr Ford from dissections by Professor Ellis'. The plates were published 1863-1867 and are signed G.H. Ford (George Henry Ford, 1808-1876). This one, of 'The shoulder, and the muscles at the back of the scapula' is undated. The graphically lifelike drawings, reproduced by chromolithography, are reckoned to be some of the best anatomical artworks and show exactly how the dissected body has been manipulated for the drawings.

 

Ellis (1812-1900) was Professor of Anatomy at University College London from 1850, following Richard Quain (the cousin of Jones Quain) and this work was successful enough for a second edition in 1876 (1882 in New York). The plates were published with a separate smaller text volume of descriptions.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 3. One copy of these plates has the signature of Walter T. Clegg, Liverpool, perhaps a former owner, and notes its price - £6 6/ (six pounds and six shillings) in 1867. Medical Education

Detail from plate 9 - engraved anatomical illustration of the bones of the left hand from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.Medical Education

 

Image of bones/skeleton

 

Hand

The work of CIAT's Agrobiodiversity Research Area.

 

Credit: ©2017 CIAT/NeilPalmer

Please credit accordingly and leave a comment when you use a CIAT photo.

For more info: ciat-comunicaciones@cgiar.org

Plate 8 (skeleton and rhinoceros) from Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the skeleton and muscles of the human body. (London : printed by H. Woodfall for John and Paul Knapton, 1749).

 

Large folio plate engraved by Charles Grignion (1717-1810), with a rhinoceros in the background.

 

The German anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770) studied in Leiden and Paris, and taught surgery and anatomy in Leiden. He made studies of the bones and muscles in particular, and made pioneering attempts to improve the accuracy of anatomical illustration. He also edited the works of Andreas Vesalius.

 

His large-scale Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani (Leiden, 1747) was published largely at his own expense; the artist and engraver Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759) added the background scenes.The London 1749 edition gives an English translation of the original Latin text.

 

SPEC Anatomy 27(3) from the Anatomical atlases collection, Special Collections and Archives, the University of Liverpool Library (plates only).

 

Images from Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

Two figures from the thirteenth subject, at full three months. Plate 32 from William Hunter, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata = The anatomy of the human gravid uterus exhibited in figures (Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1774).

 

The Anatomy of the human gravid uterus is William Hunter's most famous work,and one of the last works printed by the pioneering Birmingham printer and typefounder, John Baskerville.

 

The large folio plates reproduce the drawings of Jan van Rymsdyk (fl. 1750-1788), based on dissections in which William Hunter acknowledges his brother John's help. His preface also commentson the favourable weather for dissection he enjoyed in preparing the drawings of his first subject. (Hunter's lectures on anatomy took place during the winter).

 

The Scottish anatomist, surgeon and male midwife William Hunter (1718-1783) studied at the University of Glasgow and worked with William Cullen at Hamilton before moving to London in 1741. He was a pupil in surgery at St. George's Hospital and was appointed physician extraordinary to Queen Charlotte in 1762, having assisted at the safe delivery of her son. His knowledge of female anatomy in pregnancy also made him an expert witness in cases of infanticide. He founded the Hunterian Museum (now at the University of Glasgow) holding his anatomical and pathological specimen collection and library.

 

SPEC Anatomy 26, from the Anatomcal Atlases collection in Special Collections and Archves, University of Liverpool Library.

  

Images from Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

Plate 24 (neck) from George Viner ELLIS's Illustrations of dissections in a series of original coloured plates the size of life, representing the dissection of the human body by George Viner Ellis and G. H. Ford London: James Walton, 1867).

 

This volume of lifesize plates states 'The drawings are from nature and on stone by Mr Ford from dissections by Professor Ellis'. The plates are signed G.H. Ford (George Henry Ford, 1808-1876) and this one of 'Internal carotid and ascending pharyngeal arteries, and cranial nerves in the neck' is dated 1 November 1864. The graphically lifelike drawings, reproduced by chromolithography, are reckoned to be some of the best anatomical artworks and show exactly how the dissected body has been manipulated for the drawings.

 

Ellis (1812-1900) was Professor of Anatomy at University College London from 1850, following Richard Quain (the cousin of Jones Quain) and this work was successful enough for a second edition in 1876 (1882 in New York). The plates were published with a separate smaller text volume of descriptions.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 3. One copy of these plates has the signature of Walter T. Clegg, Liverpool, perhaps a former owner, and notes its price - £6 6/ (six pounds and six shillings) in 1867.Medical Education

 

Face and neck exposed

Engraved plate showing classical statue, pasted into: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

Medical Education

Beverly Burnett dresses up.

Canon F1n, 50mm f1.4 SSC, Vivitar 282 flash

Kodachrome 64

1981

 

Taken in 1981 at Beale AFB, California, Physiological Support Division, USAF Hospital Beale.

 

PSD is the flight integration facility where pressure suits survival kits, parachutes and other flight equipment are maintained, fitted, overhauled or integrated into the aircraft systems. (At this time U2R/TR-1, and SR-71A)

 

This is a David Clark S1031 suit, a seven layered suit used to unlimited altitude. The suit uses 100% oxygen which enters the suit through a pressure regulator in the rear of the helmet. The helmet has a face curtain to assure that any suit leaks do not decompress the face area, and that pressure is available for breathing. Exhaled gases get passed through the face curtain to the suit environment. The suit pressure is maintained with compressed Oxygen from the aircraft system, through a dual stage suit pressure controller. The regulator is operated by two vacuum aneroids which compress seals, if the ambient cabin pressure is less than required, the vacuum aneroids contract allowing system pressure to enter the suit. The small pulley with the steel cable running through it is the helmet hold-down strap which stops the helmet from rising when the suit is inflated.

 

In the event of ejection there are 2 auxiliary oxygen bottles in the survival kit which should supply enough oxygen for the crewman to reach the ground.

 

Integrated into the suit is the parachute harness, connected by the Koch connector on her left shoulder. The parachute is a 35 foot diameter chute ballistically opened by a mortar fired 25 pound steel slug. The chute utilizes a quarter deployment bag, only partially opening at altitude. Once speed has reduced, the chute fully deploys.

 

The suit also contains automatic life preservers under each arm, equipped with a salt water sensor which immediately inflates the preservers when exposed to sea-water.

 

There have been successful ejections above 80,000 feet.

Detail from plate 3 (muscles) from Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the skeleton and muscles of the human body. (London : printed by H. Woodfall for John and Paul Knapton, 1749).

 

Large folio plate engraved by Charles Grignion (1717-1810).

 

The German anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770) studied in Leiden and Paris, and taught surgery and anatomy in Leiden. He made studies of the bones and muscles in particular, and made pioneering attempts to improve the accuracy of anatomical illustration. He also edited the works of Andreas Vesalius.

 

His large-scale Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani (Leiden, 1747) was published largely at his own expense; the artist and engraver Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759) added the background scenes.The London 1749 edition gives an English translation of the original Latin text.

 

SPEC Anatomy 27(3) from the Anatomical atlases collection, Special Collections and Archives, the University of Liverpool Library (plates only).

 

Images from Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

Detail from plate 6, engraved anatomical illustration of the "jonctures and articulations of the arm and leg - articulation of ye thigh-bone with ye tibia" from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

 

Images from Medical books in Special Collections at University of Liverpool

Congratulation to our students who were conferred with BSc degrees in Physiology at the UCD O'Reilly Hall on 3rd September 2015. A small selection of photographs from a postgraduation reception and prize-giving held in UCD Conway Institute.

 

Best wishes to all graduates from UCD School of Medicine

1945 7th Print; The Physiology of sex by Kenneth Walker.

Tyrannosaurus (/tɨˌrænəˈsɔrəs/ or /taɪˌrænəˈsɔrəs/ ("tyrant lizard", from the Ancient Greek tyrannos (τύραννος), "tyrant", and sauros (σαῦρος), "lizard")) is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex (rex meaning "king" in Latin), commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is one of the most well-represented of the large theropods. Tyrannosaurus lived throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. Tyrannosaurus had a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids. Fossils are found in a variety of rock formations dating to the Maastrichtian age of the upper Cretaceous Period, 68 to 66 million years ago. It was the last known member of the tyrannosaurids, and among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

 

Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to its large and powerful hind limbs, Tyrannosaurus fore limbs were short but unusually powerful for their size and had two clawed digits. The most complete specimen measures up to 12.3 m in length, up to 4 meters tall at the hips, and up to 6.8 metric tons in weight. Although other theropods rivaled or exceeded Tyrannosaurus rex in size, it is still among the largest known land predators and may have exerted one of the largest biting forces among all animals, given its skull structure. By far the largest carnivore in its environment, Tyrannosaurus rex may have been an apex predator, preying upon hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, and possibly sauropods, although some experts have suggested the dinosaur was primarily a scavenger. The question of whether Tyrannosaurus was an apex predator or a pure scavenger was among the longest ongoing debates in paleontology; however, a majority of scientists now agree that Tyrannosaurus rex was most likely an opportunistic carnivore, acting as both a predator and a scavenger when appropriate.

 

More than 50 specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Soft tissue and proteins have been reported in at least one of these specimens. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including its life history and biomechanics. The feeding habits, physiology and potential speed of Tyrannosaurus rex are a few subjects of debate. Its taxonomy is also controversial, as some scientists consider Tarbosaurus bataar from Asia to be a second Tyrannosaurus species while others maintain Tarbosaurus is a separate genus. Several other genera of North American tyrannosaurids have also been synonymized with Tyrannosaurus.

 

DESCRIPTION

Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time; the largest complete specimen, located at the Field Museum of Natural History under the name FMNH PR2081 and nicknamed Sue, measured 12.3 meters long, and was 4 meters tall at the hips. Mass estimates have varied widely over the years, from more than 7.2 metric tons, to less than 4.5 metric tons, with most modern estimates ranging between 5.4 metric tons and 6.8 metric tons. One study in 2011 found that the maximum weight of Sue, the largest Tyrannosaurus, was between 9.5 and 18.5 metric tons, though the authors stated that their upper and lower estimates were based on models with wide error bars and that they "consider [them] to be too skinny, too fat, or too disproportionate". Packard et al. (2009) tested dinosaur mass estimation procedures on elephants and concluded that those of dinosaurs are flawed and produce over-estimations; thus, the weight of Tyrannosaurus could have been much less than previously thought. Other estimations have concluded that the largest known Tyrannosaurus specimens had masses approaching or exceeding 9 tonnes. The neck of Tyrannosaurus rex formed a natural S-shaped curve like that of other theropods, but was short and muscular to support the massive head. The forelimbs had only two clawed fingers, along with an additional small metacarpal representing the remnant of a third digit. In contrast the hind limbs were among the longest in proportion to body size of any theropod. The tail was heavy and long, sometimes containing over forty vertebrae, in order to balance the massive head and torso. To compensate for the immense bulk of the animal, many bones throughout the skeleton were hollow, reducing its weight without significant loss of strength.

 

The largest known Tyrannosaurus rex skulls measure up to 1.5 meters in length. Large fenestrae (openings) in the skull reduced weight and provided areas for muscle attachment, as in all carnivorous theropods. But in other respects Tyrannosaurus's skull was significantly different from those of large non-tyrannosauroid theropods. It was extremely wide at the rear but had a narrow snout, allowing unusually good binocular vision. The skull bones were massive and the nasals and some other bones were fused, preventing movement between them; but many were pneumatized (contained a "honeycomb" of tiny air spaces) which may have made the bones more flexible as well as lighter. These and other skull-strengthening features are part of the tyrannosaurid trend towards an increasingly powerful bite, which easily surpassed that of all non-tyrannosaurids. The tip of the upper jaw was U-shaped (most non-tyrannosauroid carnivores had V-shaped upper jaws), which increased the amount of tissue and bone a tyrannosaur could rip out with one bite, although it also increased the stresses on the front teeth.

 

The teeth of Tyrannosaurus rex displayed marked heterodonty (differences in shape). The premaxillary teeth at the front of the upper jaw were closely packed, D-shaped in cross-section, had reinforcing ridges on the rear surface, were incisiform (their tips were chisel-like blades) and curved backwards. The D-shaped cross-section, reinforcing ridges and backwards curve reduced the risk that the teeth would snap when Tyrannosaurus bit and pulled. The remaining teeth were robust, like "lethal bananas" rather than daggers, more widely spaced and also had reinforcing ridges. Those in the upper jaw were larger than those in all but the rear of the lower jaw. The largest found so far is estimated to have been 30 centimeters long including the root when the animal was alive, making it the largest tooth of any carnivorous dinosaur yet found.

 

SKIN AND FEATHERS

While there is no direct evidence for Tyrannosaurus rex having had feathers, many scientists now consider it likely that T. rex had feathers on at least parts of its body, due to their presence in related species of similar size. Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History summarized the balance of evidence by stating that: "we have as much evidence that T. rex was feathered, at least during some stage of its life, as we do that australopithecines like Lucy had hair."

 

The first evidence for feathers in tyrannosauroids came from the small species Dilong paradoxus, found in the Yixian Formation of China, and reported in the journal Nature in 2004. As with many other theropods discovered in the Yixian, the fossil skeleton was preserved with a coat of filamentous structures which are commonly recognized as the precursors of feathers. Because all known skin impressions from larger tyrannosauroids known at the time showed evidence of scales, the researchers who studied Dilong speculated that feathers may correlate negatively with body size - that juveniles may have been feathered, then shed the feathers and expressed only scales as the animal became larger and no longer needed insulation to stay warm. However, subsequent discoveries showed that even some gigantic tyrannosauroids had feathers covering much of their bodies, casting doubt on the hypothesis that they were a size-related feature.

 

While skin impressions from a Tyrannosaurus rex specimen nicknamed "Wyrex" (BHI 6230) discovered in Montana in 2002, as well as some other giant tyrannosauroid specimens, show at least small patches of mosaic scales, others, such as Yutyrannus huali (which was up to 9 meters long and weighed about 1,400 kilograms), preserve feathers on various sections of the body, strongly suggesting that its whole body was covered in feathers. It is possible that the extent and nature of feather covering in tyrannosauroids may have changed over time in response to body size, a warmer climate, or other factors.

 

CLASSIFICATION

Tyrannosaurus is the type genus of the superfamily Tyrannosauroidea, the family Tyrannosauridae, and the subfamily Tyrannosaurinae; in other words it is the standard by which paleontologists decide whether to include other species in the same group. Other members of the tyrannosaurine subfamily include the North American Daspletosaurus and the Asian Tarbosaurus, both of which have occasionally been synonymized with Tyrannosaurus. Tyrannosaurids were once commonly thought to be descendants of earlier large theropods such as megalosaurs and carnosaurs, although more recently they were reclassified with the generally smaller coelurosaurs.

 

In 1955, Soviet paleontologist Evgeny Maleev named a new species, Tyrannosaurus bataar, from Mongolia. By 1965, this species had been renamed Tarbosaurus bataar. Despite the renaming, many phylogenetic analyses have found Tarbosaurus bataar to be the sister taxon of Tyrannosaurus rex, and it has often been considered an Asian species of Tyrannosaurus. A recent redescription of the skull of Tarbosaurus bataar has shown that it was much narrower than that of Tyrannosaurus rex and that during a bite, the distribution of stress in the skull would have been very different, closer to that of Alioramus, another Asian tyrannosaur. A related cladistic analysis found that Alioramus, not Tyrannosaurus, was the sister taxon of Tarbosaurus, which, if true, would suggest that Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus should remain separate.

 

Other tyrannosaurid fossils found in the same formations as Tyrannosaurus rex were originally classified as separate taxa, including Aublysodon and Albertosaurus megagracilis, the latter being named Dinotyrannus megagracilis in 1995. However, these fossils are now universally considered to belong to juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex. A small but nearly complete skull from Montana, 60 centimeters long, may be an exception. This skull was originally classified as a species of Gorgosaurus (G. lancensis) by Charles W. Gilmore in 1946, but was later referred to a new genus, Nanotyrannus. Opinions remain divided on the validity of N. lancensis. Many paleontologists consider the skull to belong to a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex. There are minor differences between the two species, including the higher number of teeth in N. lancensis, which lead some scientists to recommend keeping the two genera separate until further research or discoveries clarify the situation.

 

PALEOBIOLOGY

LIFE HISTORY

The identification of several specimens as juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex has allowed scientists to document ontogenetic changes in the species, estimate the lifespan, and determine how quickly the animals would have grown. The smallest known individual (LACM 28471, the "Jordan theropod") is estimated to have weighed only 30 kg, while the largest, such as FMNH PR2081 (Sue) most likely weighed over 5,400 kg. Histologic analysis of Tyrannosaurus rex bones showed LACM 28471 had aged only 2 years when it died, while Sue was 28 years old, an age which may have been close to the maximum for the species. Histology has also allowed the age of other specimens to be determined. Growth curves can be developed when the ages of different specimens are plotted on a graph along with their mass. A Tyrannosaurus rex growth curve is S-shaped, with juveniles remaining under 1,800 kg until approximately 14 years of age, when body size began to increase dramatically. During this rapid growth phase, a young Tyrannosaurus rex would gain an average of 600 kg a year for the next four years. At 18 years of age, the curve plateaus again, indicating that growth slowed dramatically. For example, only 600 kg separated the 28-year-old Sue from a 22-year-old Canadian specimen (RTMP 81.12.1). A 2004 histological study performed by different workers corroborates these results, finding that rapid growth began to slow at around 16 years of age. Another study corroborated the latter study's results but found the growth rate to be much faster, finding it to be around 1800 kilograms. Although these results were much higher than previous estimations, the authors noted that these results significantly lowered the great difference between its actual growth rate and the one which would be expected of an animal of its size. The sudden change in growth rate at the end of the growth spurt may indicate physical maturity, a hypothesis which is supported by the discovery of medullary tissue in the femur of a 16 to 20-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex from Montana (MOR 1125, also known as B-rex). Medullary tissue is found only in female birds during ovulation, indicating that B-rex was of reproductive age. Further study indicates an age of 18 for this specimen. Other tyrannosaurids exhibit extremely similar growth curves, although with lower growth rates corresponding to their lower adult sizes.

 

Over half of the known Tyrannosaurus rex specimens appear to have died within six years of reaching sexual maturity, a pattern which is also seen in other tyrannosaurs and in some large, long-lived birds and mammals today. These species are characterized by high infant mortality rates, followed by relatively low mortality among juveniles. Mortality increases again following sexual maturity, partly due to the stresses of reproduction. One study suggests that the rarity of juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex fossils is due in part to low juvenile mortality rates; the animals were not dying in large numbers at these ages, and so were not often fossilized. However, this rarity may also be due to the incompleteness of the fossil record or to the bias of fossil collectors towards larger, more spectacular specimens. In a 2013 lecture, Thomas Holtz Jr. would suggest that dinosaurs "lived fast and died young" because they reproduced quickly whereas mammals have long life spans because they take longer to reproduce. Gregory S. Paul also writes that Tyrannosaurus reproduced quickly and died young, but attributes their short life spans to the dangerous lives they lived.

 

SEXUAL DIMORPHISM

As the number of known specimens increased, scientists began to analyze the variation between individuals and discovered what appeared to be two distinct body types, or morphs, similar to some other theropod species. As one of these morphs was more solidly built, it was termed the 'robust' morph while the other was termed 'gracile'. Several morphological differences associated with the two morphs were used to analyze sexual dimorphism in Tyrannosaurus rex, with the 'robust' morph usually suggested to be female. For example, the pelvis of several 'robust' specimens seemed to be wider, perhaps to allow the passage of eggs. It was also thought that the 'robust' morphology correlated with a reduced chevron on the first tail vertebra, also ostensibly to allow eggs to pass out of the reproductive tract, as had been erroneously reported for crocodiles.

 

In recent years, evidence for sexual dimorphism has been weakened. A 2005 study reported that previous claims of sexual dimorphism in crocodile chevron anatomy were in error, casting doubt on the existence of similar dimorphism between Tyrannosaurus rex sexes. A full-sized chevron was discovered on the first tail vertebra of Sue, an extremely robust individual, indicating that this feature could not be used to differentiate the two morphs anyway. As Tyrannosaurus rex specimens have been found from Saskatchewan to New Mexico, differences between individuals may be indicative of geographic variation rather than sexual dimorphism. The differences could also be age-related, with 'robust' individuals being older animals.

Only a single Tyrannosaurus rex specimen has been conclusively shown to belong to a specific sex. Examination of B-rex demonstrated the preservation of soft tissue within several bones. Some of this tissue has been identified as a medullary tissue, a specialized tissue grown only in modern birds as a source of calcium for the production of eggshell during ovulation. As only female birds lay eggs, medullary tissue is only found naturally in females, although males are capable of producing it when injected with female reproductive hormones like estrogen. This strongly suggests that B-rex was female, and that she died during ovulation Recent research has shown that medullary tissue is never found in crocodiles, which are thought to be the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, aside from birds. The shared presence of medullary tissue in birds and theropod dinosaurs is further evidence of the close evolutionary relationship between the two.

 

POSTURE

Modern representations in museums, art, and film show Tyrannosaurus rex with its body approximately parallel to the ground and tail extended behind the body to balance the head.

 

Like many bipedal dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex was historically depicted as a 'living tripod', with the body at 45 degrees or less from the vertical and the tail dragging along the ground, similar to a kangaroo. This concept dates from Joseph Leidy's 1865 reconstruction of Hadrosaurus, the first to depict a dinosaur in a bipedal posture. In 1915, convinced that the creature stood upright, Henry Fairfield Osborn, former president of the American Museum of Natural History, further reinforced the notion in unveiling the first complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton arranged this way. It stood in an upright pose for 77 years, until it was dismantled in 1992.

 

By 1970, scientists realized this pose was incorrect and could not have been maintained by a living animal, as it would have resulted in the dislocation or weakening of several joints, including the hips and the articulation between the head and the spinal column. The inaccurate AMNH mount inspired similar depictions in many films and paintings (such as Rudolph Zallinger's famous mural The Age of Reptiles in Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History) until the 1990s, when films such as Jurassic Park introduced a more accurate posture to the general public.

 

ARMS

When Tyrannosaurus rex was first discovered, the humerus was the only element of the forelimb known. For the initial mounted skeleton as seen by the public in 1915, Osborn substituted longer, three-fingered forelimbs like those of Allosaurus. However, a year earlier, Lawrence Lambe described the short, two-fingered forelimbs of the closely related Gorgosaurus. This strongly suggested that Tyrannosaurus rex had similar forelimbs, but this hypothesis was not confirmed until the first complete Tyrannosaurus rex forelimbs were identified in 1989, belonging to MOR 555 (the "Wankel rex"). The remains of Sue also include complete forelimbs. Tyrannosaurus rex arms are very small relative to overall body size, measuring only 1 meter long, and some scholars have labelled them as vestigial. However, the bones show large areas for muscle attachment, indicating considerable strength. This was recognized as early as 1906 by Osborn, who speculated that the forelimbs may have been used to grasp a mate during copulation. It has also been suggested that the forelimbs were used to assist the animal in rising from a prone position.Another possibility is that the forelimbs held struggling prey while it was killed by the tyrannosaur's enormous jaws. This hypothesis may be supported by biomechanical analysis. Tyrannosaurus rex forelimb bones exhibit extremely thick cortical bone, which have been interpreted as evidence that they were developed to withstand heavy loads. The biceps brachii muscle of a full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex was capable of lifting 199 kilograms by itself; other muscles such as the brachialis would work along with the biceps to make elbow flexion even more powerful. The M. biceps muscle of T. rex was 3.5 times as powerful as the human equivalent. A Tyrannosaurus rex forearm had a limited range of motion, with the shoulder and elbow joints allowing only 40 and 45 degrees of motion, respectively. In contrast, the same two joints in Deinonychus allow up to 88 and 130 degrees of motion, respectively, while a human arm can rotate 360 degrees at the shoulder and move through 165 degrees at the elbow. The heavy build of the arm bones, strength of the muscles, and limited range of motion may indicate a system evolved to hold fast despite the stresses of a struggling prey animal. In the first detailed scientific description of Tyrannosaurus forelimbs, paleontologists Kenneth Carpenter and Matt Smith dismissed notions that the forelimbs were useless or that Tyrannosaurus rex was an obligate scavenger.

 

SOFT TISSUE

In the March 2005 issue of Science, Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University and colleagues announced the recovery of soft tissue from the marrow cavity of a fossilized leg bone from a Tyrannosaurus rex. The bone had been intentionally, though reluctantly, broken for shipping and then not preserved in the normal manner, specifically because Schweitzer was hoping to test it for soft tissue. Designated as the Museum of the Rockies specimen 1125, or MOR 1125, the dinosaur was previously excavated from the Hell Creek Formation. Flexible, bifurcating blood vessels and fibrous but elastic bone matrix tissue were recognized. In addition, microstructures resembling blood cells were found inside the matrix and vessels. The structures bear resemblance to ostrich blood cells and vessels. Whether an unknown process, distinct from normal fossilization, preserved the material, or the material is original, the researchers do not know, and they are careful not to make any claims about preservation. If it is found to be original material, any surviving proteins may be used as a means of indirectly guessing some of the DNA content of the dinosaurs involved, because each protein is typically created by a specific gene. The absence of previous finds may be the result of people assuming preserved tissue was impossible, therefore not looking. Since the first, two more tyrannosaurs and a hadrosaur have also been found to have such tissue-like structures. Research on some of the tissues involved has suggested that birds are closer relatives to tyrannosaurs than other modern animals.

 

In studies reported in Science in April 2007, Asara and colleagues concluded that seven traces of collagen proteins detected in purified Tyrannosaurus rex bone most closely match those reported in chickens, followed by frogs and newts. The discovery of proteins from a creature tens of millions of years old, along with similar traces the team found in a mastodon bone at least 160,000 years old, upends the conventional view of fossils and may shift paleontologists' focus from bone hunting to biochemistry. Until these finds, most scientists presumed that fossilization replaced all living tissue with inert minerals. Paleontologist Hans Larsson of McGill University in Montreal, who was not part of the studies, called the finds "a milestone", and suggested that dinosaurs could "enter the field of molecular biology and really slingshot paleontology into the modern world".

 

Subsequent studies in April 2008 confirmed the close connection of Tyrannosaurus rex to modern birds. Postdoctoral biology researcher Chris Organ at Harvard University announced, "With more data, they would probably be able to place T. rex on the evolutionary tree between alligators and chickens and ostriches." Co-author John M. Asara added, "We also show that it groups better with birds than modern reptiles, such as alligators and green anole lizards."

 

The presumed soft tissue was called into question by Thomas Kaye of the University of Washington and his co-authors in 2008. They contend that what was really inside the tyrannosaur bone was slimy biofilm created by bacteria that coated the voids once occupied by blood vessels and cells. The researchers found that what previously had been identified as remnants of blood cells, because of the presence of iron, were actually framboids, microscopic mineral spheres bearing iron. They found similar spheres in a variety of other fossils from various periods, including an ammonite. In the ammonite they found the spheres in a place where the iron they contain could not have had any relationship to the presence of blood. However, Schweitzer has strongly criticized Kaye's claims and argues that there's no reported evidence that biofilms can produce branching, hollow tubes like those noted in her study. San Antonio, Schweitzer and colleagues published an analysis in 2011 of what parts of the collagen had been recovered, finding that it was the inner parts of the collagen coil that had been preserved, as would have been expected from a long period of protein degradation. Other research challenges the identification of soft tissue as biofilm and confirms finding "branching, vessel-like structures" from within fossilized bone.

 

THERMOREGULATION

As of 2014, it is not clear if Tyrannosaurus was endothermic (warm-blooded). Tyrannosaurus, like most dinosaurs, was long thought to have an ectothermic ("cold-blooded") reptilian metabolism. The idea of dinosaur ectothermy was challenged by scientists like Robert T. Bakker and John Ostrom in the early years of the "Dinosaur Renaissance", beginning in the late 1960s. Tyrannosaurus rex itself was claimed to have been endothermic ("warm-blooded"), implying a very active lifestyle. Since then, several paleontologists have sought to determine the ability of Tyrannosaurus to regulate its body temperature. Histological evidence of high growth rates in young Tyrannosaurus rex, comparable to those of mammals and birds, may support the hypothesis of a high metabolism. Growth curves indicate that, as in mammals and birds, Tyrannosaurus rex growth was limited mostly to immature animals, rather than the indeterminate growth seen in most other vertebrates.

 

Oxygen isotope ratios in fossilized bone are sometimes used to determine the temperature at which the bone was deposited, as the ratio between certain isotopes correlates with temperature. In one specimen, the isotope ratios in bones from different parts of the body indicated a temperature difference of no more than 4 to 5 °C between the vertebrae of the torso and the tibia of the lower leg. This small temperature range between the body core and the extremities was claimed by paleontologist Reese Barrick and geochemist William Showers to indicate that Tyrannosaurus rex maintained a constant internal body temperature (homeothermy) and that it enjoyed a metabolism somewhere between ectothermic reptiles and endothermic mammals. Other scientists have pointed out that the ratio of oxygen isotopes in the fossils today does not necessarily represent the same ratio in the distant past, and may have been altered during or after fossilization (diagenesis). Barrick and Showers have defended their conclusions in subsequent papers, finding similar results in another theropod dinosaur from a different continent and tens of millions of years earlier in time (Giganotosaurus). Ornithischian dinosaurs also showed evidence of homeothermy, while varanid lizards from the same formation did not. Even if Tyrannosaurus rex does exhibit evidence of homeothermy, it does not necessarily mean that it was endothermic. Such thermoregulation may also be explained by gigantothermy, as in some living sea turtles.

 

FOOTPRINTS

Two isolated fossilized footprints have been tentatively assigned to Tyrannosaurus rex. The first was discovered at Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico, in 1983 by American geologist Charles Pillmore. Originally thought to belong to a hadrosaurid, examination of the footprint revealed a large 'heel' unknown in ornithopod dinosaur tracks, and traces of what may have been a hallux, the dewclaw-like fourth digit of the tyrannosaur foot. The footprint was published as the ichnogenus Tyrannosauripus pillmorei in 1994, by Martin Lockley and Adrian Hunt. Lockley and Hunt suggested that it was very likely the track was made by a Tyrannosaurus rex, which would make it the first known footprint from this species. The track was made in what was once a vegetated wetland mud flat. It measures 83 centimeters long by 71 centimeters wide.

 

A second footprint that may have been made by a Tyrannosaurus was first reported in 2007 by British paleontologist Phil Manning, from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. This second track measures 72 centimeters long, shorter than the track described by Lockley and Hunt. Whether or not the track was made by Tyrannosaurus is unclear, though Tyrannosaurus and Nanotyrannus are the only large theropods known to have existed in the Hell Creek Formation.

 

LOCOMOTION

There are two main issues concerning the locomotory abilities of Tyrannosaurus: how well it could turn; and what its maximum straight-line speed was likely to have been. Both are relevant to the debate about whether it was a hunter or a scavenger.

 

Tyrannosaurus may have been slow to turn, possibly taking one to two seconds to turn only 45° - an amount that humans, being vertically oriented and tailless, can spin in a fraction of a second. The cause of the difficulty is rotational inertia, since much of Tyrannosaurus' mass was some distance from its center of gravity, like a human carrying a heavy timber - although it might have reduced the average distance by arching its back and tail and pulling its head and forelimbs close to its body, rather like the way ice skaters pull their arms closer in order to spin faster.

 

Scientists have produced a wide range of maximum speed estimates, mostly around 11 meters per second (40 km/h), but a few as low as 5–11 meters per second (18–40 km/h), and a few as high as 20 meters per second (72 km/h). Researchers have to rely on various estimating techniques because, while there are many tracks of very large theropods walking, so far none have been found of very large theropods running - and this absence may indicate that they did not run. Scientists who think that Tyrannosaurus was able to run point out that hollow bones and other features that would have lightened its body may have kept adult weight to a mere 4.5 metric tons or so, or that other animals like ostriches and horses with long, flexible legs are able to achieve high speeds through slower but longer strides. Additionally, some have argued that Tyrannosaurus had relatively larger leg muscles than any animal alive today, which could have enabled fast running at 40–70 kilometers per hour.

 

Jack Horner and Don Lessem argued in 1993 that Tyrannosaurus was slow and probably could not run (no airborne phase in mid-stride), because its ratio of femur (thigh bone) to tibia (shin bone) length was greater than 1, as in most large theropods and like a modern elephant. However, Holtz (1998) noted that tyrannosaurids and some closely related groups had significantly longer distal hindlimb components (shin plus foot plus toes) relative to the femur length than most other theropods, and that tyrannosaurids and their close relatives had a tightly interlocked metatarsus that more effectively transmitted locomotory forces from the foot to the lower leg than in earlier theropods ("metatarsus" means the foot bones, which function as part of the leg in digitigrade animals). He therefore concluded that tyrannosaurids and their close relatives were the fastest large theropods. Thomas Holtz Jr. would echo these sentiments in his 2013 lecture, stating that the giant allosaurs had shorter feet for the same body size than Tyrannosaurus, whereas Tyrannosaurus had longer, skinnier and more interlocked feet for the same body size; attributes of faster moving animals. A study by Eric Snively and Anthony P. Russel published in 2003 would also find that the tyrannosaurid arctometatarsals and elastic ligaments worked together in what he called a 'tensile keystone model' to strengthen the feet of Tyrannosaurus, increase the animal's stability and add greater resistance to dissociation over that of other theropod families; while still allowing resiliency that is otherwise reduced in ratites, horses, giraffids and other animals with metapodia to a single element. The study would also point out that elastic ligaments in larger vertebrates could store and return relatively more elastic strain energy, which could have improved locomotor efficiency and decrease the strain energy transferred to the bones. The study would suggest that this mechanism could have worked efficiently in tyrannosaurids as well. Hence, the study involved identifying the type of ligaments attached to the metatarsals, then how they functioned together and comparing it to those of other theropods and modern day analogs. The scientists would find that arctometatarsals may have enabled tyrannosaurid feet to absorb forces such as linear deceleration, lateral acceleration and torsion more effectively than those of other theropods. It is also stated in their study that this may imply, though not demonstrate, that tyrannosaurids such as Tyrannosaurus had greater agility than other large theropods without an arctometatarsus.

 

Christiansen (1998) estimated that the leg bones of Tyrannosaurus were not significantly stronger than those of elephants, which are relatively limited in their top speed and never actually run (there is no airborne phase), and hence proposed that the dinosaur's maximum speed would have been about 11 meters per second (40 km/h), which is about the speed of a human sprinter. But he also noted that such estimates depend on many dubious assumptions.

 

Farlow and colleagues (1995) have argued that a Tyrannosaurus weighing 5.4 metric tons to 7.3 metric tons would have been critically or even fatally injured if it had fallen while moving quickly, since its torso would have slammed into the ground at a deceleration of 6 g (six times the acceleration due to gravity, or about 60 meters/s²) and its tiny arms could not have reduced the impact. However, giraffes have been known to gallop at 50 kilometers per hour, despite the risk that they might break a leg or worse, which can be fatal even in a "safe" environment such as a zoo. Thus it is possible that Tyrannosaurus also moved fast when necessary and had to accept such risks.

 

In a study published by Gregory S. Paul in the journal Gaia, he would point out that the flexed kneed and digitigrade adult Tyrannosaurus were much better designed for running than elephants or humans, pointing out that Tyrannosaurus had a large ilium bone and cnemial crest that would have supported large muscles needed for running. He would also mention that Alexander's (1989) formula to calculate speed by bone strength was only partly reliable. He suggests that the formula is overly sensitive to bone length; making long bones artificially weak. He would also point out that the lowered risk of being wounded in combat may have been worth the risk of Tyrannosaurus falling while running. Most recent research on Tyrannosaurus locomotion does not support speeds faster than 40 kilometers per hour, i.e. moderate-speed running. For example, a 2002 paper in Nature used a mathematical model (validated by applying it to three living animals, alligators, chickens, and humans; later eight more species including emus and ostriches) to gauge the leg muscle mass needed for fast running (over 40 km/h). They found that proposed top speeds in excess of 40 kilometers per hour were infeasible, because they would require very large leg muscles (more than approximately 40–86% of total body mass). Even moderately fast speeds would have required large leg muscles. This discussion is difficult to resolve, as it is unknown how large the leg muscles actually were in Tyrannosaurus. If they were smaller, only 18 kilometers per hour walking or jogging might have been possible.A study in 2007 used computer models to estimate running speeds, based on data taken directly from fossils, and claimed that Tyrannosaurus rex had a top running speed of 8 meters per second (29 km/h). An average professional football (soccer) player would be slightly slower, while a human sprinter can reach 12 meters per second (43 km/h). These computer models predict a top speed of 17.8 meters per second (64 km/h) for a 3-kilogram Compsognathus (probably a juvenile individual).

 

However, in 2010, Scott Persons, a graduate student from the University of Alberta proposed that Tyrannosaurus's speed may have been enhanced by strong tail muscles. He found that theropods such as T rex had certain muscle arrangements that are different from modern day birds and mammals but with some similarities to modern reptiles. He concluded that the caudofemoralis muscles which link the tail bones and the upper leg bones could have assisted Tyrannosaurus in leg retraction and enhanced its running ability, agility and balance. The caudofemoralis muscle would have been a key muscle in femoral retraction; pulling back the leg at the femur. The study also found that theropod skeletons such as those of Tyrannosaurus had adaptations (such as elevated transverse processes in the tail vertebrae) to enable the growth of larger tail muscles and that Tyrannosaurus's tail muscle mass may have been underestimated by over 25 percent and perhaps as much as 45 percent. The caudofemoralis muscle was found to comprise 58 percent of the muscle mass in the tail of Tyrannosaurus. Tyrannosaurus also had the largest absolute and relative caudofemoralis muscle mass out of the three extinct organisms in the study. This is because Tyrannosaurus also had additional adaptations to enable large tail muscles; the elongation of its tail's hemal arches. According to Persons, the increase in tail muscle mass would have moved the center of mass closer to the hindquarters and hips which would have lessened the strain on the leg muscles to support its weight; improving its overall balance and agility. This would also have made the animal less front-heavy, thus reducing rotational inertia. Persons also notes that the tail is also rich in tendons and septa which could have been stores of elastic energy, and thereby improved locomotive efficiency. Persons adds that this means non-avian theropods actually had broader tails than previously depicted, as broad or broader laterally than dorsoventrally near the base.

 

Heinrich Mallison from Berlin's Museum of Natural History would also present a theory in 2011, suggesting that Tyrannosaurus and many other dinosaurs may have achieved relatively high speeds through short rapid strides instead of the long strides employed by modern birds and mammals when running, likening their movement to power-walking. This, according to Mallison, would have been achievable irrespective of joint strength and lessened the need for additional muscle mass in the legs, particularly at the ankles. To support his theory, Mallison assessed the limbs of various dinosaurs and found that they were different from those of modern mammals and birds; having their stride length greatly limited by their skeletons, but also having relatively large muscles at the hindquarters. He would however find a few similarities between the musculature of dinosaurs and race-walkers; having less muscle mass in the ankles but more at the hindquarters. Mallison suggests that the differences between dinosaurs and extant mammals and birds would also have made equations to calculate speed from stride length inapplicable to dinosaurs. John Hutchinson however advised caution regarding this theory, suggesting that they must first look into dinosaur muscles to see how frequently they could have contracted.

______________________________________________

. . . continue reading at photo Tyrannosaurus 2

  

Engraved plate showing torso of classical statue, pasted into: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

Medical Education

Illustration from an old book:

 

"Die Gesammten Naturwissenschaften für das Verständnis weiterer Kreise" Vol 2 of 3

Published by G.D.Bäderer, Essen, Germany , 1858

 

I saved this volume from a garbage bin when they cleared the library in my school in the 1970s.

 

There are many interesting illustrations

Physiological responses to exercise of Italian Stand Up Paddling (SUP) athlete (www.facebook.com/silvia.mecucci) measured in the field with K4b2 wearable metabolic system. Know more: www.cosmed.com/en/products/cardio-pulmonary-exercise-test...

Start of the text of De Motu Cordis from 18th-century Latin edition of the anatomical works of William Harvey (1578-1657) containing his famous 'De Motu Cordis', or 'Anatomical Treatise on the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals' and 'On Generation', published in Leiden by Johannes van Kerckhem, 1737.

 

Harvey's De Motu Cordis was originally published in 1628 as a tract of 72 pages, and it demonstrated for the first time the circulation of the blood, solving the puzzle of the physiology of the blood vessels. Harvey conceived his idea of how the circulation of the entire blood system might work from his knowledge of previous discoveries, and then demonstrated it by carrying out an extensive series of dissections and experiments. His demonstration of scientific research method: 'the first record of a complete experimental biological investigation' makes this one of the most important books ever published.

 

Part of the medical collection in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Y73.2.107. With inscription on the volume titlepage, 'De Juliao Fernandez da Sylva' and signature of 'W.H.B. Ross'; signature of 'W.H.B. Ross' also on the titlepage of 'On Generation'.Medical Education

 

Book.

Title pageof first part of 18th-century Latin edition of the anatomical works of William Harvey (1578-1657) containing his famous 'De Motu Cordis', or 'Anatomical Treatise on the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals' and 'On Generation', published in Leiden by Johannes van Kerckhem, 1737.

 

Harvey's De Motu Cordis was originally published in 1628 as a tract of 72 pages, and it demonstrated for the first time the circulation of the blood, solving the puzzle of the physiology of the blood vessels. Harvey conceived his idea of how the circulation of the entire blood system might work from his knowledge of previous discoveries, and then demonstrated it by carrying out an extensive series of dissections and experiments. His demonstration of scientific research method: 'the first record of a complete experimental biological investigation' makes this one of the most important books ever published.

 

Part of the medical collection in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Y73.2.107. With inscription on the volume titlepage, 'De Juliao Fernandez da Sylva' and signature of 'W.H.B. Ross'; signature of 'W.H.B. Ross' also on the titlepage of 'On Generation'.Medical Education

Detail of titlepage of De Humani corporis fabrica libri septem (Seven books on the fabric of the human body): a full page woodcut illustration of a dissection, with a portrait of Vesalius.

 

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) was a medic, army surgeon, professor of anatomy and court physician. This work, first published in 1543, was both renowned and vilified for questioning the anatomical teaching of Galen (AD129-c.200). It has remained one of the most important works in the history of medicine, both for the scientific observations on which it is based and the accuracy of the illustrations.

 

The Liverpool copy (SPEC H99.38/oversize) was the gift of Mrs Stella Permewan in memory of her son William Muspratt Permewan in 1948. There are signatures of earlier, possibly contemporary, owners on the titlepage.

Medical Education

 

book

Dedication page showing engraved heraldic dedication to Richard Mead, with skeletons, from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

Medical Education

 

old book image

Titlepage of De Humani corporis fabrica libri septem (Seven books on the fabric of the human body): a full page woodcut illustration of a dissection, with a portrait of Vesalius.

 

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) was a medic, army surgeon, professor of anatomy and court physician. This work, first published in 1543, was both renowned and vilified for questioning the anatomical teaching of Galen (AD129-c.200). It has remained one of the most important works in the history of medicine, both for the scientific observations on which it is based and the accuracy of the illustrations.

 

The Liverpool copy (SPEC H99.38/oversize) was the gift of Mrs Stella Permewan in memory of her son William Muspratt Permewan in 1948. There are signatures of earlier, possibly contemporary, owners on the titlepage.

Medical Education

 

book

Sheep's heart, to be exact! The heart photo is from my wife's sheep heart dissection for her college Anatomy and Physiology class.

Plate 14 from Jones QUAIN's The viscera of the human body (1840) showing the organs of respiration - the lungs.

 

Known as Quain's Plates, this book was the fourth in a series of five volumes of anatomical plates (1836-1842), with references and physiological comments, edited by Jones Quain and William James Erasmus Wilson.

 

They aimed to provide students with affordable access to high quality illustrations with English commentary. Their comments give detailed descriptions of the parts of the body in the illustration, and explain the process of dissection needed to show them.

 

The original drawings by W.Bagg were done from nature then lithographed by William Fairland for reproduction.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 12.

 

One copy of these plates was part of the Medical Library of the Liverpool Infirmary before passing to the Departmental Library in Anatomy.

Images from Special Collection & Archives, the University of Liverpool

Thorax

Pelvic bone (os innominatum, plate 13) from Johnston's students' atlas of the bones and ligaments by Charles W. Cathcart and Francis M. Caird (Edinburgh: Johnston, 1885).

 

Part of the anatomical atlases collection in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 5. With signature on the titlepage, Herbert Brown, 19 Grove Rd, Wallasey.

 

Images from Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

Don't eat me please, we were family! - Autophagy [self eating] - the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Yoshinori Ohsumi. Autophagy allows the cell to destroy its own contents and transport via vesicles into lysosome, a recycling compartment for degradation. It involves in many important physiological process including cancer

Engraved titlepage vignette by J. Sturt showing skeletons from Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

statur

Plate 2 from Jones QUAIN's The viscera of the human body (1840) showing part of the parotid gland from a calf (fig.3 top), the mouth (fig.1 middle) and the inner surface of the lips with the labial glands (fig. 2 bottom).

 

Known as Quain's Plates, this book was the fourth in a series of five volumes of anatomical plates (1836-1842), with references and physiological comments, edited by Jones Quain and William James Erasmus Wilson.

 

They aimed to provide students with affordable access to high quality illustrations with English commentary. Their comments give detailed descriptions of the parts of the body in the illustration, and explain the process of dissection needed to show them.

 

The original drawings by W.Bagg were done from nature then lithographed by William Fairland for reproduction.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 12.

 

One copy of these plates was part of the Medical Library of the Liverpool Infirmary before passing to the Departmental Library in Anatomy.

Images from Special Collection & Archives, the University of Liverpool

Detail of plate 3 (hand and arm) from Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the skeleton and muscles of the human body. (London: printed by H. Woodfall for John and Paul Knapton, 1749).

 

Diagram lettered in English and Greek to provide a key to the facing plate of the skeleton engraved by Charles Grignion (1717-1810).

 

The German anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770) studied in Leiden and Paris, and taught surgery and anatomy in Leiden. He made studies of the bones and muscles in particular, and made pioneering attempts to improve the accuracy of anatomical illustration. He also edited the works of Andreas Vesalius.

 

His large-scale Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani (Leiden, 1747) was published largely at his own expense; the artist and engraver Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759) added the background scenes. The London 1749 edition gives an English translation of the original Latin text.

 

SPEC Anatomy 27(3) from the Anatomical atlases collection, Special Collections and Archives, the University of Liverpool Library (plates only).

  

Images from Medical Archive collections at University of Liverpool

Physiological responses to exercise of Italian Stand Up Paddling (SUP) athlete (www.facebook.com/silvia.mecucci) measured in the field with K4b2 wearable metabolic system. Know more: www.cosmed.com/en/products/cardio-pulmonary-exercise-test...

Detail from plate 9 - engraved anatomical illustration of the bones of the foot from: Anatomy improv'd and illustrated with regard to the uses thereof in designing. (London: John Senex, 1723).

 

This volume of engraved plates and text was originally published in Rome in 1691, and was re-engraved and republished in London in 1723. The dissections were done for the Italian edition by Bernardino Genga, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and physician in the hospital of San Spirito in Rome, and the explanatory text by the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720). The book, designed for artists rather than medical students, includes plates of famous classical statues from Rome and is described as 'A work of great use to painters, sculptors, statuaries and all others studious in the noble arts of design'.

 

The English edition is dedicated by the publisher to Richard Mead, FRCP, FRS (1673-1754), 'a favourer of the politer arts'.

 

Part of the Anatomical Atlases in Special Collections & Archives, SPEC Anatomy 6. Cropped inscription on the titlepage, 'Tho. Dixon's Book 1799' and the pencilled name' Miss Annie Jackson, 19 North Street' on the front flyleaf, with pencil measurements possibly from a dissected skeleton on the back of the last (index) page.

 

The volume has had some plates cut out, but has also been grangerised with later anatomical illustrations pasted in.

Medical Education

 

Image of bones/skeleton of foot