By completing a dissection, you can see firsthand the anatomy of an animal. Dissecting a roasted chicken (yes, the same kind that you eat) will allow you to investigate the skin, muscle, and bones of this bird.
So, if you’re interested in seeing what allows a chicken to run, fly, and survive, go out to the grocery store and grab some chicken!
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1. Observe a roasted chicken. Make note of the skin. The skin provides the chicken with protection, just like it does in human beings.
2. Note: The next steps require a knife and scissors. Be sure to get parent permission before doing this. Now, with a knike, cut the skin from the back to the front along the sternum bone, which you should be able to feel along the top of the chicken.
3. Pull the skin back to expose the muscle (the part you eat).
4. With a fork or with your fingers, remove the muscle. Notice the amount of muscle present and the fact that it connects to the sternum, or breastbone. This muscle also attaches to the wing, and provides the wing with the muscle it needs for flight.
5. Remove a leg from the whole chicken. Cut the skin to expose muscle. Pull muscle out from the top half of the leg. The single bone you see is the femur. As you look at the top of the bone, notice the circular looking structure. This is part of the ball-and-socket joint that connects the femur and hip.
6. Carefully remove the muscle from the lower half of the leg, exposing the larger tibia and smaller fibula bones. Also notice that there is quite a bit of muscle attached to the leg. Remember that chickens run more than they fly.
Why is this important: By looking at the muscle and bones of the chicken, you can learn a great deal about the animal. It is clear that both flight and running are important for chickens. It is also interesting to note the ways in which chicken anatomy is similar to human anatomy. Both animals have sternums, a femur, a tibia, and a fibula. If you’d like, you can dissect the wing in the same way as the leg, and observe the same bones as the human arm.
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