Chicken Dissection Analysis

Chicken Dissection

We started with the dissection procedure by first removing the chicken from the bag and drying it. The next step was to remove the skin, and we did this by slitting the skin along the midline of the skin then peeling the skin off. We then made an incision through the pectoralis major along one side of the sternum and opened the pectoralis major to see the pectoralis minor beneath it. We turned the chicken around and made a slit along the backbone and removed the skin to the base of each wing. Now we can see the trapezius and the latissimus dorsi. We then removed the wing from the chicken to examine the muscles within the wing. We slit the skin on the ventral side of the wing and peeled off the skin. We then moved on to examine the muscles of the thigh and drumstick. We spread the legs apart and slit the skin on the inside of the leg all the way from the abdominal opening to the hock, and peeled off the skin. We then applied the same procedure and skinned the drumstick.

Muscles play a role in movement by contracting and relaxing to move body parts. An example of this is the pectoralis major muscle that allows the chicken to fly. This muscle runs from one side of the sternum through the shoulders to the humorous. The bones help in movement by supporting the body and giving it structure. The role of the tendon in movement is connecting the muscle to a bone so that the movement can be compacted and the muscle and bones can move together instead of the muscle dragging the bone.

Some physical and functional differences in the tendon of the insertion compared to the tendon at the origin is that the tendon at the origin is probably tighter and stronger than the insertion since it is the immovable end of the muscle. The tendon at the insertion is probably is looser to allow more movement of the muscle from the insertion towards the origin.

An example of a difference in chicken muscle compared to human muscles is that the chicken pectoralis majors are much larger in proportional size to its body than the pectoralis major to humans. Another difference is that the biceps of the chicken in the wing are a lot smaller compared to the biceps in humans proportional size to human arms. Another difference in chicken muscle compared to human muscles is that in chicken muscles, the muscles in the drumstick are about the same size as the muscles in the thighs. However, in humans, the muscles in the thighs are much larger than the muscles in the calves.

This pin in the middle is the sternum.
The pin on the left is the pectoralis minor.
The pin on the right is the pectoralis major.
















The pin on the left is the trapezius.

The pin on the right is the latissimus dorsi.

This pin shows the deltoid.
The biceps brachii is on the cranial side of the upper wing.
The triceps humeralis is on the inferior side of the upper wing.


















The pin on the top shows the triceps humeralis.
The pin underneath it shows the biceps brachii.
The pin on the left is the flexor carpi ulnaris.
















The pin on the top is the sartorius.
The pin on the far left is the iliotibialis.
The biceps femoris can be found on the medial inferior section iliotibialis.
The semimembranosus is inferior and medial to the biceps femoris on the edge of the thigh.
The semitendinosus is anterior and medial to the semimembranosus inside the thigh.
And the quadriceps femoris is on the inside of the thigh and lies medial to the sartorius.

The gastrocnemius is represented by the pin and is on the posterior and medial side of the drumstick.
The peroneus longus is on the lateral side of the drumstick.
And the tibialis anterior is under the peroneus longus.