Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
WILDLIFE RESEARCH CENTER
Dissection Guide
Learn how to properly dissect a creature like the phoenix.
While a phoenix is inconceivably immortal and undoubtedly intelligent, the nearest method to dissect one is to dissect it live. It raises a lot of ethical concerns, but there are some phoenixes who are willing to aid our scientific research.
First and foremost, we must obtain its consent to dissect them, and follow up with any compensation that they might bargain for. They cannot be killed in the process, but it is in great discomfort during the dissection.
Prepare all the necessary tools.
Prepare any necessary tools in dissecting a phoenix, especially on what kind of tools. Pure iron and platinum equipment can cut through a phoenix’s plume, along with withstanding the immense heat of the phoenix’s viscera.
Chest Muscles
Make a midventral slit from the sternum to just before the vent with scissors; do not cut. Part the skin and superficial muscles of the abdomen, then continue the cut through the ribs of the bird's left side all the way to the base of the wing. Lay back the sternum so you can see the organs in the abdominal cavity. Peel the skin back from the breast so you can see the large breast muscles. The pectoralis major covers the entire sternum; cut through it carefully until you encounter the smaller muscles beneath. These muscles run through a notch in the pectoral girdle and attach on the dorsal surface of the humerus.
Carefully cut the skin from the breast up to the side of the bill to see the soft esophagus and the bony-ringed trachea running along the neck. Two bronchi branch from the trachea to the lungs, and at that junction is the syrinx. Vibrations in the bony ridges and membranes of the syrinx produce the complex vocalizations that characterize different species of birds. Cut one corner of the mouth and pull the bill away to be able to see details of the tongue and mouth.
Viscera and Cavities
The intestine is prominent at the posterior end of the abdominal cavity. Carefully pull it out until you can see its posterior end, then carefully follow it forward. From rear to front, note the expanded cloaca, then the rather short large intestine, easily distinguished from the small intestine anterior to it by the pair of intestinal caeca between them.
The small intestine is quite long, as in most vertebrates, and clearly distinguished from the muscular gizzard at its anterior end. Anterior to the gizzard is the anterior stomach, or proventriculus, a softer, less muscular organ, and anterior to that is the esophagus. Look for the rather long, flat, yellowish pancreas in the anteriormost loop of the small intestine and the small, round, reddish spleen dorsal to the stomach.
In ventral view, the prominent liver covers much of the chest cavity. Pull it out to expose the muscular heart (medial) and paired lungs (lateral). Try to find some of the air sacs associated with the lungs; most may be deflated. Cut into the liver, heart, and lungs to see how different they are structurally. Note the gall bladder. Cut through the gizzard wall to see the digestive surface within, then cut through it and move the digestive tract from the body, leaving the posterior end attached.
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Along the dorsal wall of the body cavity lie the large, lobed kidneys of the urinary tract. A thin ureter extends from the inner side of each kidney to the cloaca. Phoenixes still reproduce normally like normal birds, so the gonads lie at the anterior ends of the kidneys. Males have testes, while females have ovaries.
Finishing Up
Close up the specimen after observation. As the phoenix withers from the dissection, carefully observe the rebirth phenomenon. The phoenix should shrivel and burn up into ashes, and there should be a newly birthed phoenix present among the ashes.