It’s true: The Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) was believed to be either functionally or fully extinct in the wild, and multiple subspecies were believed to be extinct altogether, back in the mid-1900s. 

Read more about the re-discovery and recovery of Branta canadensis maxima.

THEY WONT STOP ATTACKING MY CAR

(Truthfully, I love the big jerks; they’re amazing parents and the poster child for critically endangered species recovering - but DAMNIT I JUST WANT MY PANERA NOT YOUR STUPID BABIES, LEAVE ME ALONE)

This is correct, and I didn’t phrase this particularly well either in this post or the original - while all subspecies of Canada Goose were found to be threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species act of 1973 (and were known to be so well before then), the Giant Canada Goose was the only one ever thought to be extinct in the wild.

That said, the massive flying hateboats that are the Giant Canada Goose are the primary problem for me (in Central Minnesota) these days, so forgive me if I seem slightly biased towards their annoyingly impressive recovery.

Cerebrospinal meningitis due to influenza bacillus

This 4-month-old was suspected to have developed meningitis due to the influenza bacillus crossing into the brain either by the frontal sinus (which is thin to begin with, but extremely delicate in young children), or through the nasopharyngeal lymph channels near the base of the brain. 

The brain was found to be partially covered in a muco-purulent exudate, with a large necrotic patch in the right frontal lobe. The infant had several seizures during the course of the illness, but it was suspected that they were febrile seizures (caused by high fever and not uncommon in babies), and unrelated to the necrosis of the frontal lobe. The bacterial infiltration of the cortex was suspected to have blocked one or more blood vessels, causing a stroke.

Influenza may not be killing off 5% of our population every year like it did in 1918 (which was after this case and, interestingly, spared the frail and killed the healthy), but it’s still a fatal disease to many infants and elderly patients. And really, even the healthiest person can come down with really awful complications from the yearly flu virus. It just happens to be much more prevalent in those whose bodies are not fully capable of fighting off infection.

So if you’ve had the flu recently, and felt awful and unable to breathe and your body hurt like you had been sleeping on a bed of lumpy rocks, you probably can see where bad complications can come from. But if you never get the flu or haven’t had it in ages, don’t think it’s just some little thing, or just like a bad cold or something. It’s something that’s actually worth going out of your way to protect yourself (and those around you) from!

Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. Louis Fischer, 1917.

This is your yearly reminder to get your dang flu shot if you’re able to, because there are those out there who can’t.

* “Influenza bacillus” is the term used in the reference material, in reference to Haemophilus influenzae - the bacteria that causes the most common secondary infection to influenza. It was supposed to be the causal agent for influenza until 1933, when the viral origin of influenza was discovered.

Haemophilus influenzae is an opportunistic infection which can cause meningitis, ear infections, epiglottitis (inflamed epiglottis which leads to serious problems breathing), sinusitis, and pneumonia, especially in children and the immunocompromised.

(Thanks to With Grace and Guts for the correction! The lay texts I read are sometimes mistaken, and any corrections are always welcome.)

Note the corrections - the HiB vaccine has drastically reduced infection by Haemophilus influenzae B, especially in children, and is also an important vaccine to get if you work with those who are young, old, or immunocompromised. Immunity to HiB is much longer-lasting than influenza (it doesn’t change every dang year), prevents some of the most devastating survivable complications of the flu.

It wouldn’t hurt for us all to get it, but I understand the limits of most medical systems.

But! This baby died of something that shouldn’t kill the vast majority of us, yet still kills many who contract the bacteria while ill and unvaccinated or unable to be vaccinated. I know that a lot of you have feelings against those who consciously don’t vaccinate, but their babies and kids have no say in the matter, so do your part to keep those young’uns alive so that they can learn how science actually works.

Bones, cartilage, and muscles of the larynx.

The laryngeal folds are where voice is produced, and is located just below where the pharynx separates into the esophagus and the larynx. During the swallowing action, if solid matter enters the larynx, a strong coughing reflex is triggered to protect the lungs. This is also triggered at other times, if solid matter touches the glottis. Should that coughing reflex not dislodge the bolus, suffocation can occur.

During puberty, the protective laryngeal cartilage (specifically the thyroid cartilage) expands and forms the Adam’s apple - in males, the cartilage fuses at approximately a 90° angle, and in females, it fuses at approximately 120°. Both genders have Adam’s apples! The difference in fusion means that the male vocal cords have more room to grow outward, and form a deeper voice. 

When an adult is hanged, throttled or strangled in a murder, the hyoid bone - the only bone in the body not directly connected to other bones - is almost always cracked or split apart. However, since it does not completely fuse until early adulthood, children and adolescents do not always show this distinctive sign.

Atlas d’Anatomie Descriptive du Corps Humain. C. Bonamy and Paul Broca, 1866.

It’s actually been known for a very long time that the hyoid is not “almost always cracked or split apart” in hangings or strangulations. Though there isn’t a ton of literature about it, reports of traumatic hyoid fracture in strangulation and hanging cases ranges from near nil to 67%. Probably the best-known study of this type (Ubelaker, 1992) found the highest rate of traumatic hyoid fracture occurs in manually-strangled adults with an incidence rate of 34%. In very rare cases, hyoid fracture can occur outside of hanging, throttling, and strangulation.

tl;dr strangulation definitely does not always equal traumatic hyoid fracture, and hyoid fracture sometimes does not mean strangulation.

Duders I was totally wrong. Well, mostly wrong. Or at least sort of wrong, which still warrants correction. Check out the links provided by XP! They're definitely pointing in a different direction than my anatomy textbook.

...on a related note, damn do I wish that related fields of medicine would communicate more often. A 2002 anatomy text should not have information that's been out of date for upwards of a decade.

The Juvenile Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin)

It should first be noted that all birds are dinosaurs (order Saurischia, clade Theropoda), not just descendents of dinosaurs - modern genetic analysis strongly supports this cladistic organization. But given what we’re too often taught in schools, birds and dinosaurs are hard to reconcile in many peoples’ minds.

The juvenile hoatzin, however, makes it easy to see the reptilian traits that once dominated the early birds, and displays the unused genetic codes that lurk in the genome of modern avians. When they hatch, they’re equipped with lizard-like claws in front of their wings. Their use is described here, but in short, they use them to return to their nest and avoid predators. Their claws disappear by the time they leave the nest, having grown together into the metacarpals that support the wing structure.

Another fascinating trait of the hoatzins is their vegetarianism and their digestive tract. They have gut flora and fermentation similar to ruminants, which no other bird has. This is actually what leads to their being called “stink birds” - they exude a lot of stench with the fermentation process. The gut fermentation is so important to the hoatzin that the flight muscles attached to their keel are significantly reduced, to allow for more space for the stomach. They are weak flyers because of this. After a large meal, an adult hoatzin can spend up to two days doing almost nothing, allowing the leaves and greenery to have their nutrients released by their symbiotic gut flora.

Images: Top: Attitudes of the juvenile hoatzin while climbing Second row, left: Hoatzin nest with two eggs - Note proximity to water Second row, right: Two hoatzin chicks preparing to dive, after appearance of threat from above Third row, left: Hoatzin chick demonstrating strong swimming abilities Third row, right: Hoatzin chick demonstrating poor locomotion on land Bottom: Detail of hoatzin chick climbing, using neck, feet, and claws.

Tropical Wild Life in British Guinea, Vol 1. Curated by William Beebe, 1898.

It should be noted that the claws of Hoatzin are not actually simply because they are related to dinosaurs. Their claws actually re-evolved independently - they are not evolutionary leftovers at their core. While it could be considered a re-appearing gene because of their evolutionary history, it’s still something that would have to be selected over time and could have vanished again just as easily, not to mention it’s very unlikely (and impossible to prove) that it is the exact genome coming out of dormancy.

It’s more similar to dinosaurs when one thinks about convergent evolution than when one thinks about descendence, even if they are descendents too.

All of this is true, but I still like the hoatzin as an example of how to start to show people how birds really *are* dinosaurs - it's a concept that many people don't even begin to accept easily.

Hoatzin claws aren't so much elongated talons-turned-wings like the Archaeopteryx seems to have, as they are a set of hooks on the front of a "chicken wing" structure. Note too, that Archaeopteryx and the hoatzin are not closely related at all (also the archaeopteryx may not even be a bird or bird relative/ancestor, but that's a whole different matter).

Either way, the hoatzin (btw, if anyone's wondering, that's basically pronounced "Watsin") is an interesting bird. The morphological changes in the wing bones as it matures are interesting enough, but the fact that it's got such a weird digestive system are what really intrigue me.

It should be noted that while the hoatzin is a poor flyer, it's not because it's "primitive" or anything - it's completely because they have a huge gut, and smaller flight muscles because of that. While their gut is a characteristic that some pretty ancient ancestors of theirs had (at least back to the Eocene), the species as a whole isn't some evolutionary throwback, like some of the Crocodilians. The "hook-hands" of the hoatzin are relatively recent developments, as was noted. But their morphological similarities to the extinct Therapods still helps to remind people that dinosaurs and birds aren't so different, after all.