Chicken Leg Dissection

The objective of the chicken leg dissection was to view the muscle and skin tissue, bones and tendons, and how they all function together. I wanted to observe the surrounding fat and its purpose, along with contemplate the bone shapes, what they contain inside, and the joint types and function.

Procedure

The first step was to observe the skin and its tissue, how it connects to the muscle beneath. The outside skin tissue of the chicken was rough and thin. It detached easily on the fattier parts, but was harder to detach towards the bonier parts of the leg. The adipose connective tissue underneath was almost clear and in some places, white.

This picture shows the chicken leg with the skin attached.

I next cut away the skin and tissue to expose the fat underneath and the muscle. The fat was clumpy and white, slimy. It insulates the body and store extra nutrition. Cells that store fat are called lipids. I see multiple muscles. I can tell that there are more than one because they are striated and it looks like in some places, the striation is going at a slightly different direction than the other, and it is layered underneath itself.

This picture shows the skin coming off the muscle, and the tissue that connects it. The white clumps around the muscle near the bottom of the picture are fat.

This is the chicken leg with all the skin and underlying tissue removed. I noticed a big muscle in the middle and littler ones toward the left.

More of the fat around the leg.

Next I tried to find the tendons. One was easy to find. The tendons were smooth, firm but resilient. Skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles, and they are used for body temperature regulation and contraction. I removed the muscle by cutting the tendon and peeled the muscle away from the bone. I was able to get a good view of the different connection points in the tendons and how they went into the muscle. I removed all the muscle and uncovered the bone.

The white glossy part I'm pointint to is a tendon.

Upon cutting the tendon, you can see here the different attachment points where the tendon attached to the bone (little vein-like protrustions)

Upon operating it, I found that the leg joint was a ball-and socket joint, it revolved around completely and had a ball like head that fit perfectly into a socket- like part of the bone. The movement demonstrated is called rotation. The ligaments were hard to find and uncover. I cut them at the joint and pulled the bone out of the joint. The texture of the ends of the bone were smooth. The tissue that connects therm are dense fibrous connective tissue. If the cartilage at the ends of the bone were to wear out, the chicken in this case would get arthritis. Regular exercise preserves a healthy range of motion for the chicken.

This is the chicken bone. The part that I'm holding is the joint head.

This is another joint head with a barely visible point of connection (if you look into the hole of the chicken leg in my right hand, you can see where the joint fit in).

If I were to look inside the bone with a neat cut, I would be able to see the central cavity that contains the bone marrow. The bone marrow produces megakaryoblasts, lyumphoblasts, monoblasts, myeoblasts and eyrthroblasts.

In conclusion, I was able to properly observe and identify the connective tissue, muscles, bone, joints, tendons and cartilage of a chicken leg. I was able to identify how the muscles connect to the bones through tendons, how the bones connect at the cartilage and what type of joint was covered.