Anatomy and Physiology: Chicken Dissection Analysis

We skinned the chicken and got a good look at all the muscles, first and foremost the pectoralis major and minor. The muscles help the chicken move and hold itself up. The allow for the chicken to walk, hop, stand, and sit. For example, the pectoralis major gives chickens the ability to move its wings ventrally. The pectoralis minor allows the chicken to move its wings dorsally. The bones give the chicken its skeleton and are what allows it to have the anatomy to move. The tendons attach the muscles to the bone so that the muscles can move in different directions, which in turn allow the chicken to perform movements.

The insertion of the muscle in the wings are quite shiny and white. When they move, the muscle is lengthened or shortened, and they glide against each other - as the chicken would when performing that movement.

Surprisingly, the chicken's muscles were quite similar to those of a human. The chicken has biceps and triceps like humans, obviously on a much smaller scale, but we quickly identified them. The trapezius was on the back, same as in humans, despite the overall difference in anatomy. It was also not hard to identify. The sartorius are on the front of the thigh, and allows for the crossing of the legs. Same on a human, they were also pretty easily spotted. The shape of a chicken is very different from a humans, but the muscles it has are not so different.