Skinning - Process and Observations
The wolf had been fresh when frozen and no decomposition, save a slight drying of the tongue, was visible. The animal took three days to thaw completely, but after two days the skin was sufficiently pliable that inroads could be made into skinning.
The wolf weighed approximately 90 pounds and was too frozen on first inspection to be turned over onto its back, and so the right fore- and hind-limbs were tied back with rope and the first incision made from the centre of the lower lip down the ventral midline to the tail, leaving a circle around the sheath and anus and making it only halfway down the end of the tail -- due to drying while in the freezer, the tail's skin had bonded tightly to the bones and in the interest of haste, the wolf's tail was cut in half and the stuck half left in the skin.
Cuts were made down the inside of the fore and hind limbs to the wrists and pasterns; the fur was left on the feet and the skin was peeled off upwards along the legs. The skin was then slowly peeled off along the flanks and the back, meeting along the dorsal midline and then being pulled up over the head, which was skinned with a knife by Professor Adams. The skin was covered on the inside by a fine, translucent membrane, as were the underlying muscle structures. A scalpel was necessary to neatly part the fascia and separate the skin from the flesh underneath; when removed, the skin was bagged and frozen for tanning (see On the Tanning of a Wolf Hide).
Thick winter fur appeared
to have formed the bulk of the
wolf's mass, for after skinning the
animal resembled a greyhound or a
cursorial cat. The limbs were
extremely long and slender, the
chest and hips narrow, the back
long and muscular.
Underlying structures were observed to be pink (muscle), gold (bone) and grey (skin membranes; tendons) in colour, slightly moist to the touch and covered by a thin, strong membrane (fascia) which crackled when pulled. Muscles were thickly layered on the shoulders, haunches, neck and chest, and were generally a dark to brick red there; they were attached firmly to the long bones by fans of white tendons which were strong enough to require five to ten strokes of a scalpel to slice through. On the flanks relatively light (abdominal) muscling was observed, its colour pale pink and without possessing the thick fans of tendon on the end. The flank muscle was thin and came off readily with the skin, while the darker (striated) muscle on the legs, neck and chest tended to remain when the skin was removed. Blood appeared only when vessels were accidentally cut; there was no blood naturally in the body cavity and all surfaces were smooth and clean.
Once the wolf thawed, the appendages were moveable in ways which suggested life; if a
hindlimb was extended at the knee the
hock tended to turn appropriately, and if
a forelimb was extended at the foot the
entire limb showed a propensity for
extension on its own. Clearly, tendons
are responsible for at least a small part of
the animal's movement in life. The
assistance of tendons in motion was
observed to a smaller degree along the
spine and flanks, and was not observed
at all in the head or neck area. The
muscles on the whole body were entirely
slack, and folded in on themselves
instead of contracting or compacting
when limbs were moved.
Upper appendages were thickly muscled with opposing bunches of heavy red (aerobic) muscle which quickly dried, then turned dark brown or green as they decomposed. The upper limb bones were nearly impossible to find under the masses of meat, which were largest on the shoulders, on the backs of the femurs, and at the back of the head and jaw (masseter). Lower limbs were white and grey with tendon and little muscle, especially on the toes and the tip of the tail. There were twin lines of thick muscle along either side of the dorsal midline, and no muscling at all directly on the midline -- just a thin line of yellowish tendon down the spine. The vertebrae were sheathed in smooth muscle. Little or no body fat was observed.
At the "elbow" joints (between the humerus and the radius/ulna), the ulna was observed to extend beyond the radius and slightly behind the joint with the humerus, forming a blunt "spike" at the elbow (the olecranon). This spike was padded by a thick capsule embedded in the skin. When resting in a "sphinx" position (forelimbs extended in front of the body), the olecranotic process would have rested against the capsule, which would have provided cushioning between the bone and the ground. When skinning the right side, the padding capsule came free with the skin, which thickened from less than 3 mm along the limb to nearly 1 cm on either side of the capsule, and was filled with a thick, clear fluid. The capsule on the left side remained with the limb, and could be moved over the olecranon easily and smoothly.