Chicken Foot
Dissection
Background: Materials: The chicken leg is very similar to the human leg in that both
are made up of lots of different cells, tissues, and organs. These body parts interact
and cooperate to allow the chicken to perform a variety of activities such as walking,
hopping, sitting, and standing. In this investigation, the various tissues and structures
of the leg of a chicken will be found and described. Tendons attach muscle to bone.
Tendons, which attach our toes to upper support bones are very long and can be
easily found.
Muscles move in antagonistic (opposite) pairs to move a bone. So for every movement
there should be a pair of tendons. One muscle and tendon to contract and close the
joint, and another tendon and muscle to relax or open the joint.
The chicken foot has long easy to reach tendons which make the foot ideal to use.
Chickens actually walk on their toes and NOT on their feet.
chicken foot, dissecting pan, scissors, forceps, paper towels
Procedures:
1. Place the chicken foot in your dissecting pan. Examine the tough outer layer covering
the outside.
a. Describe this outer layer. For example, is there any hair or feathers
present? What is the texture of the layer like?
b. How is the outer layer (skin) of the chicken foot different from the outer layer of
your foot (skin)?
2. Find the silvery white tough connective tissue that is near the top of the foot next to
the bone.
4.Pull this silvery mass from under the skin with your fingers. Holding the mass of
tendons, PULL!!!
a. What happened to the toes?
3. Now separate each tendon from the bundle and pull separately.
a. How many individual tendons are there?
b. What happens when you pull ONLY ONE tendon?
4.Now do the same thing to the front of the foot. Slit the skin and find the tendons..
a. What happens to the toes?
b. What happens when you stop pulling these tendons?
5. Pull each separate tendon like you did with the last bundle.
a. Are these 2 sets of tendons antagonistic pairs? Explain
b. When the chicken was alive what were the tendons attached to?
6. Using one of your hands, form a claw with your fingers. a. Do you see hard strings
leaving the backs of your fingers and going to your wrists?
b. What do they look like
c. Can you see or feel a similar set of structures in your palm?
d. Can you see them in your arm?
7. Encircle your arm about an inch higher than your wrist.
a. What do you FEEL?
8. Remove the skin from the chicken foot using your scalpel and dissecting scissors. Be
careful to not damage the tissue underneath.
9. Look for the muscles on the chicken foot. The muscles are bundles of dark pink
tissue that surrounds the bone. Muscles are what allow animals to move.
10. Look for whitish tissue, or ligaments, between the bones. Ligaments hold bones
together.
11. Look for a thin strand of material with your dissecting needle. Carefully pull the
strand aside with the dissecting needle. This strand is a nerve. Nerves are what
send messages (directions) from the brain to
different parts of the body, such as muscles. Without directions from the brain,
you (and the chicken) would not be able to do anything.
12. Look for a thin reddish-brown strand of tissue. Pull it aside with the dissecting
needle. This strand is a blood vessel. Blood vessels supply the different parts of the
body with blood (food and oxygen) and take wastes away from these parts of the
body.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Name 2 ways in which muscles and bones are different.
Name two ways in which tendons and ligaments are different.
What is a tendon?
What is a ligament?
What is a joint?
What is a nerve?
Why would a chicken not be able to walk if there was some damage to the nerve
in the foot?