Tendons are made of a type of connective tissue that contains lots of white fibres made of
collagen. It is this collagen that gives the connective tissue its properties.Your task now is to remove all the muscles neatly from the bones. As you do so try and pull
one or two off the bone using your fingers or forceps; remove the rest using s/s scissors or
the scalpel.Look carefully at how the tendon joins the muscle. If necessary dissect into the muscle
tissue.- How firmly are the muscles attached to bones?
- Approximately how many muscles did you remove?
- Describe how the tendon and muscle join.
- Write down four adjectives to describe collagen from what you can observe.
Collect ALL the muscles you remove. You should now have a pile of fat and a pile of muscle.
Weigh and record the mass of subcutaneous fat and muscle in the table where you recorded
the mass of the wing.- Bone
You should now be left with some bones joined together with skin, muscles and ’proper’
connective tissue removed. The bones of most birds are hollow.Why are hollow bones an advantage for a bird?Use the miniature hacksaw to cut a bone in half.Describe what you see.Use the vernier calliper to measure the thickness of the bone wall.Label the following parts of the bird- upper arm
- Forearm
- Wingtip
- Ligaments
Ligaments look similar to tendons and have a very similar histology with lots of collagen
fibres. Ligaments join bone to bone, and also form protective capsular ligaments around
synovial joints by for instance, keeping in the lubricating synovial fluid. Cut through and
carefully remove the capsular ligament of a large joint using your s/s scissors.Can you see internal ligaments?Write down three observable characteristics of the ligament you cut.- Cartilage
Look at the end of a bone and find the cartilage it is pearly white in colour.142 5.4. Animal tissues