February 19, 2004

Ever wondered what a monkey brain looks like? The Comparative Mammalian Brain Collection has photos of brains from 175 different mammal species. Whole brains, sectioned brains, and more, each with a photo and range map of the donor species. (If you pay US taxes, you're helping to fund this research, so take a look.)
  • This should be our new logo... Good post. (And don't we all pay US taxes, indirectly, by buying stuff from American firms? A part of that monkey brain is mine.)
  • of course, i might be the only person who finds this interesting, but i felt it was worth sharing. and, of course, not the kind of thing you generally see on someone's blog radar. the site has fairly open limits on use of any images - as long as you don't try to publish or copyright anything, it's fair game. (also my first attempt at an FPP, please be kind.) on preview: dang, dng - that was fast... i was still struggling with my follow-up comment...
  • Elephant Preparation: "One of these [3-year old elephant] was fixed by perfusion through the carotid arteries by Dr. Roger Reep of the University of Florida. The other specimen was exposed in the basocranial skull and immersed in a solution of formol-saline." This is creepy already.
  • What? Brain evolution?? How controversial!! This is indeed way way off the non-neurobio blog radar. That's why diverse and fresh monkey blood is cool. Welcome again, frogs.
  • Awesome post. Makes me hungry.
  • One shortcoming of the site: no analysis of flavor and texture.
  • I don't need to follow the link to see what monkey brains look like; I watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom just last week.
  • Can we PLEASE stop with the monkey posts?
  • A pox on thee, Evstar! [throws rotten fruit]
  • On a similar note, the California Academy of Sciences has a Skulls exhibit that is very cool. I saw it in person a few months ago (although I think it is closed for renovation at the moment). Most of the skulls were collected by Raymond Bandar, as a hobby. He has over 1500 sea lion skulls alone. They had an exhibit there of how the skulls are cleaned using a type of flesh-eating beetle. This page lets you see a 3-D quicktime view of a few of the skulls (including an owl monkey, Evstar ;-)
  • This isn't actually a monkey post, you know. Its some mighty science ultra post (with monkeys).
  • It's neurology filter - and very good filter at that. I like the evolution side, and how all the brains look like piles of raw sausage.
  • mmm. Raw brain. I mean raw monkey. Sausage. I said sausage. /"For th' real taste of sausage, best you ever tried; pick up a pound or two of Monkeyfilter Pride..."
  • I've been searching the internet desperately to see if I can find a particular page from A. F. Dixson's excellent Primate Sexuality, which made a big impression on me when I first saw it. And, thank the lord, Amazon's Search Inside The Book came through. Links to those search results don't work, do they? Anyhow, just search for "penile morphology", and it's the one on page 245... (NSFWIYBDLPOMP) Another thing this reminds me of - which I was also reminded of by CL Frogs' "how I got my name" story about the frogs - was one time in the BioAnth lab at university with our supervisor. People were leaning against the work surfaces. There was a nice, big, solid-looking green plastic bin, which I thought would be ideal to perch myself on... It was just as I was sitting down on it (just as the lid started buckling under me) that the supervisor shouted in panic, "Don't sit on that! It's full of pickled monkeys... and they've been there since the fifties." They had, too. I can only describe it as looking like marmalade, only made out of monkeys. At that moment, like never before, that I fully realised why the word "Eewwww" was invented.
  • NSFWIYBDLPOMP
  • Far be it from me to contradict our dear flashboy, but I think the word you're searching for is... "YEAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
  • Oh, so you can link to them. OK. Why did I think you couldn't? Because I'm dumb. That's why. New game: the primate penis I would least like to be penetrated by is... (Me, I'd say F: Arctocebus calabarensis, otherwise known as the Angwantibo, or Calabar Potto. Cute little face, cock like a freaky pineapple.)
  • hey, if you like this and want to branch out a bit to include more than just mammals, the animal diversity web has a ton of general information about pretty much any soecies you can think of. photos, bios, statistics, and of course the occasional quicktime VR spinning skull model. (check out the "mammal sounds" section if you wanna know what various monkeys sound like.) enjoy.
  • crap. i meant "species", not "soecies". damn my clumsy two-fingered typing technique...
  • the primate penis I would least like to be penetrated by is... What. Space Kitty. Said. Verbatim.