On one of the first few days that I was in Japan, my program visited Azabu University to meet and learn with students and staff there. One of the activities we did at Azabu University was touring their Life Museum. This museum had a large collection of real animal skeletons, and the purpose of the museum was to teach about life in its various forms. The tour was led by a couple of students from Azabu University which made it a lot of fun because we were able to interact with people similar to us. This experience was very interesting, and I found that the messages they presented were insightful, so I want to share some of them with you in this blog post.
The first area of the museum that we walked by was the comparison between wolves and dogs. The tour guides showed us the skeleton of the domestic dog next to a wolf. The purpose of this area was to show how domestication of wolves by humans created the domestic dog. The tour guides explained multiple differences in their skeletal makeup such as teeth size, skull construction, and bone mass. These differences can all be attributed to the lifestyle of wolves changing as they became domesticated. The changes in teeth size and skull construction are due to their diet changing from real prey to soft food given by their owners. The difference I found most intriguing was how the limbs of the domestic dog had become slimmer over time because they are not required to move in the same way wolves are. While both species are very active, the less demanding lifestyle of the domestic dog has caused it to change greatly from what it once was.
The next portion of the museum was focused on comparing the size of many different mammals. The two mammals that stuck out to me the most were the Asiatic elephant and hamster which are the largest and smallest mammals, respectively. The students guiding the tour spoke to us about the effects of body size and why it matters for mammals. Some of the key points they brought up was that it is much harder for large animals to support themselves, however the fact that they are larger makes them less vulnerable prey. Conversely, smaller animals do not have to worry about supporting themselves and their size makes them a suitable target for predators. The last remark made about the size of the animals was that while smaller animals are more adaptive and have better movement capabilities, their small size hinders their lifespan as well as increases their metabolic rate. These points made it clear to us that the size of the skeleton is very important when considering different animals and their needs.
The last part of the museum that the students took us through was by far my favorite. After spending about thirty minutes looking at the skeletons of the animals, we had the chance to actually touch and hold some in another room. This was especially fun because they had a wide variety of bones to pick from. We were able to use the information we had just learned and feel it for o
urselves. I especially enjoyed examining the teeth because it made me understand the sharpness and power that I could not fully grasp through the glass containers. While I found the main tour very informative, I think being able to look at the bones in our own hands made the learning experience much better.
Our time at Azabu University was filled with many interesting lectures and demonstrations. All of these experiences were something that I will not forget because they were fun and exciting. I loved that we were able to learn a lot of information regarding animal skeletons and then physically see why animals function the way that they do. I am very grateful that I had this opportunity to learn something new and make connections with university students across the globe.