Rat Disection

Rat Dissection

I learned allot by dissecting this rat and i thought it was lots of fun. The Purpose of this dissection was to see first hand and really understand what everything is a looks like. After this dissection i really understand what everything is and the functions and uses for all the internal organs. Out of all of our dissections this term i think this one was my Favorited and i am looking forward to dissecting the pig next year !:)

Discussion question #1

1.Why are your hands the best tools in dessection?

It gives you more stability  and accuracy when handleing the rat and gives you more control so you can go deep and not damage the organs.

2.What is the purpose of having all the different labels and titles for the dissection?

Helps us know which body part it is and for us to get a better understanding of what we are learning about.

3. In what way does the tail differ from the rest of the body?

The tail had scales on it and little hair, and the rest of the body is covered in hair.

4.What purpose is served by the vibrissae?

they are used for tactical sensation and contain no nerves inside them.

5.You specimen is bilaterally symmetrical. What does this mean?

This means if you were to cut it in half it would be exactingly the same on both sides.

Discussion question #2

1.The sphincter is described as a circular muscle. why is it this shape and what does it do ?

It is a circular muscle so that liquids are able to pass through, it regulates the passage of some fluids in the body like urine.

2.Why is there a difference in size between the small and large intestines?

The small intestine receives digestive food from the stomach and the width is smaller then the large intestine but the length is longer.

3.The liver is the largest organ in the body (after the integument) What are its function?

The liver in the rat has many different functions  It produces essential enzymes for metabolizing nutrients, It is essential for filtering contaminants from the blood and converting waste into something they can dispose of. Vitamins and minerals are also stored in the liver.

4. How did the duodenum acquire its name?

The word "duodenum" comes from the latin word "duodenum digitorum" which means 12 fingers bredth.

5.What purpose is served by the appendix in those animals that retain it as a functional organ?

The purpose of the appendix is to protect your gut from germs and it produces good germs aswell.

Discussion questions #3

1. In each of the cavities, there is a membrane that covers both the wall of the cavity and the organ it contains. What is the function of the membrane?

2.What is the function of the spleen?

The spleen is associated with the circulatory system and the function is the destruction of the blood cells and blood storage.

3.What is the function of the diaphragm?

It is a large layer of muscle that separates the thoracic from the abdominal cavity.

4.What distinquishes the artia from the ventricles?

The Atria is a chamber in the heart that receives incoming blood, the ventricle is a muscular chamber in the heart that pumps blood through the body.

5.Why is the wall of the left ventrical thicker than that of the right?

The left ventrical is thicker because it has to pump blood at all areas of the body where the right netrical only has to pump blood to the lungs which is a shorter distance.

6.What similarities exist between the male and the female reproductive system?

Two similarites of male and female reproductive system in a rat is their adrenal gland kidneys both are identical and connect to their bladders.

7.What do the kidneys do?

Kidneys excrete nitrogenous waste (urine) and also regulate the water balance

8.In the dissection, you located the thyroid, the thymus, and the adrenal glands. To which system do they belong and what do they do?
The thyroid gland belongs to the digestive system and they release hormones into the body (thyroxine and triiodothyronine) and regulates your body's metabolism  It is located under your voice box. The Thymus gland belongs to the immune system and its function is it produces several hormones, called thymine, which stimulate the production and development of T cells. T cells play an important role in immunity. The adrenal glands are located on top of the kidney, its function is producing several hormones that affect blood pressure and blood sugar levels, growth, as well as some sexual characteristics.

I had a splendid time in this class ! :)

Squid Disection

Squid Dissection

The purpose of this dissection was to show us the parts of the squid that you cannot show on a picture. the goal was to get us to understand the different parts and see how they look in real life rather then a diagram. the purpose was also to see how the phylum Mollusca members work and to be familiar with the internal and external anatomy.I learned that their sentential were very important because they help them catch their prey, they can fit through tight places because their body is collapsible and they are very smart. I had tons of fun dissecting the squid and i cant wait to see what we will dissect next ! :)

1) How many arms does your squid have ? how many tentacles ?

My squid had 2 arms and 8 tentacles

2)describe how their purpose differ. What do arms do and what do tentacles do?

the arm is better for grabbing prey and holding onto them as well as onto surfaces like cave walls and rocks. Tentacles are shorter and move faster which are good for locomotive.

3)What direction the water comes out of the funnel and what direction does the squid move ?

water comes out of the back of the funnel propelling the squid forward.

4) Name two adaptations for the squids predatory life. 

The tentacles help the squid latch onto their prey with their powerful suction cups. Another important adaptation is their camouflage, it allows them to  hide from predators and prey before their attack them. 

5) Molluscs and squids share the same body cavity (colem) they both have  bilaterally symmetrical. 

Extra pictures:

This is a piece of the squid that supports it while it swims. without this the squid would just float and flop around like the jelly fish. 

This is the ink sac, it emptys into the water jet. The purpose is to distract and escape from predictors  it acts as a defence system. 

Invertabrate project

Pelagia Noctiluca

 Phylum: Cnidaria

Class: Scyphozoa

 

Body structure

Like most cnidaria, this pelagia Noctiluca is radially symmentrical. It has one main opening called the gastrovascular cavity (mouth & anus). Has 3 tissues which are the outer epidermis, inner gastrodermis and the middle layer galatinous mesoglia. The mesoglia layer is a cartilege like tissue. Unlike most cnardia's this one does not have a bottom dwelling stage (polyp) only a medusa stage. Around the edges of the unbrella like structure at the top it has light receptors and odar pits for helping it see and smell what is around them. The unbrella strusture can be color ranged from purple to brownish-red and has a frilled edge. It has eight thin stinging tenicals (up to 10cm long) attached to the edges for stunning and capturing prey and four thick lobes coming from its mouth called "oral arms". 
 

Digestion & Excretion

These cnardia are carnivorous and eat zooplankton, small fish, crustaceans, other jelly fish and fish eggs. They catch and sting prey is their tenticals and such their tenticals ito their mouths. They digest their food in their gut cavity either internaly or externaly and when they are done digesting the waste come out of the same opening. They spend most of their time hunting for food.
 

Movement

These cnidaria's, like others move by contracting their muscular ring at the bottle of the bell which propels them. Each of their cells can contract individually but ussualy they go wherever the current takes them.
 

Reproduction

The adult cnidaria have defferent sexes and reproduce by sexual reproduction. They release gametes from their gonads which are in the center of the body. The fertilize externally by releaseing them out into the ocean and hope that the ova and sperm will meet eachother to be fertilized. After the egg is fertilized if forms and planulae which is a mass of cells that swim with the cilia. Ocean currents disperse them throughtout the ocean and unlike other cnardias they do not have a polyp stage so they develop right into young medusa.

There are many different kinda of organisms found in this phyla and here are some pictures of the variety.

These are Normuras Jellyfish, they can grow to be very big and rang in colors.

Spotted jellyfish also known as lagoon jellyfish, they have unique spots on their bell

 

These are some pictures of the exotic cnidaria Pelagia Noctiluca I have chosen for my project.

 

Significance/Deutrosomes or Protosomes

Pelagia Noctiluca have no huge importance but i can infect negitivly to tourism. Getting stung by one of these are painful and can cause scares and lesions but these has been no known death from getting stung. These cnidaria's are neither deutrosomes or protosomes, they are in a group called  Radiata.

 

Instresting Facts/Why i love them!

The name pelagia Noctiluca in german means "night light", they are called this becasue they are very colorful and can leave a lumious mucas behind if they are desterbed or feel threatened.

I love these spacific cnidaria because of how unique they are from the other kinds in the phylum cnidaria

 

 

 

 

 

Earthworm Disection

Earthworm Dissection

The purpose of dissecting the earthworm was to understand and get a first hand look at what their accusal parts look like. The goal was to get a good understanding on how they breath, move, excrete, eat and live. This lab helped me a lot because looking at a diagram I did not really understand and get the idea of what it accualy looks like but getting a first hand looked really helped me get the whole idea. I had a lot of fun dissecting the earthworm and looking at it under the microscope and i learned tons of things from this lab!

1) what is the name is the pumping organs of an earthworm?

The five aortic arches

This is a picture i took of the five aortic arches(hearts)

2) This is a picture I took of the digestive track, and these are the intestines.

 3) Which parts of the earthworm serve as its brain? How are these parts connected to the rest of the body?

The ganglion serves as its brain, it is connected to the nerve collar and the ventral nerve cord and it runs the length of its body. 

 4)Which of the parts of the worm's body that you saw are included in the excretory system?
Mouth(sucks in food), Pharynx, Esophagus, Crop (food is stored until rest of track is clear), Gizzard(food is ground up with stones), Intestines (Nutrients absorbed) and Anus(food is excreted).

 5)How can you find out whether an earthworm east soil?

I looked in the intestine and I found soil (poop) and this proves that it eats soil. 

This is a picture of the intestine and soil under the microscope. 

 6)Among the earthworms structural adoptions are its setae. How do you think the earthworms setae make it well adapted to its habitat?

The setae is well adapted to its habitat because it helps with burrowing and moving through the dirt, without them they would have a much harder time moving through the dirt.

7)How is the earthworms digestive system extracting relatively small amounts of food from large amounts of ingested soil?

The gizzard is a muscular organ used to churn the food and then it moves onto the intestine where absorption of the food occurs.

 8) Your dissection of the earthworm did not go beyond segment 32. What will you observe if you dissected the remainder of the worm to its posterior end ? I did go past segment 32 and I found the intestines and the anus.

9)Where you located the earthworms reproductive organs, use a reference to identify the role of each organ.
clitellums(produces the mucus to hold the worms together during reproduction)  in contact with segments 9-11 of their mating partner. Sperm is made in the seminal vesicals (large organs on either side of esophagus)and is received in the seminal receptacles.Eggs are stored in the oviduct. After they secrete a ring of mucus around the clitellum and it slides of and takes the sperm from the seminal receptacles and eggs frrom the oviducts, it forms into a cocoon for the new baby worms to have nutrients.

zoology

Porifera

Hexactinellida: also called "glass sponge" .It is a deep sea sponge. They do not have an epidermal covering and their skeleton are composed of spicules of silica. These sponges are widely different then the other sponges due to most of their tissues are syncitia, extensive regions of multinucleate cytoplasm.

Calcarea: They are the only sponges that have spicules composed of calcium carbonate. These sponges do not have hollow axial canals. Ussualy Found in shallow waters but one species is know to live in a depth of 4,000 meters.

 

Demospongia: These are by far the most diverse sponge group know as 90 percent of the sponge species are these kinds. They skeletons are composed of spongin fibres and siliceous spicules, some live beneath stones and they do posses axial canals. They can grow to be very large and are found in almost any tropical waters and marine environments. 

Cnidaria

Box Jellyfish: Are also called "sea wasps". Their venom is among the most deadly in the world and they contain toxins that attack the heart, nervous system and skin cells. For humans touching one of their tentacles you can go into shock and drown of die of heart failure. Live in coastal waters of northern Australia. tentacles can grow up to 3 meters in length.

Coral: Most have a white skeleton that is made up of limestone and because of this they are not popular in fossle record. Coral reefs take a long time to grow due to the facts they only grow approximately 1 cm per year. Algae live inside coral and form a symbiotic relationship. The coral benefit from the energy and photosynthesis the algae make and the algae benefit form the protection and nutrients from wastes. 

Hydroids: These are colonies of hundreds of stinging jellies attached to seaweed like base. Hydroids are eaten by sea slugs, file fishes, puffers, and the Moorish Idol. they can get up to 5 cm long and they grow on rocks, hard surfaces, floats and in shallow water. 

Platyhelminthes

Cf. Dimid: Also called the "tiger" flatworm, can live under difficult light conditions. they are ussualy small but they can grow up to 40 mm. They can live in shallow, intertidal, and sub tidal parts of the water and live un to 3 or 4 months. The body colour of the organism can be; white, green, or even orange due to chemical compounds absorbed from eating.

Ferrugineus: This flat worm comes from Okinawa, Japan. their depth can be about 8m and their length 25 mm. 

Giesbrechtii (roseus): Also called the "pink flatworm" This flat worm comes from Mediteranian tropics such as Crete island. They are born with male and female parts which make them hermaphrodites and they can grow up to 3 cm in length.

Fungi

FUNGI ADVENTURE

in class we are learning about protist-like fungi, imperfect fungi, sac fungi , common molds and club fungi. Since I wasn't there Friday when we did the class nature walk I went on my own fungi walk. There are so many different kinds of fungi but I only saw a few. My favourite kind on fungi I saw was the shelf fungi, I think its really cool how it looks like a shelf and before I learnt about fungi in our class i didn't know that it was fungi. I learnt that fungi mostly grow in groups because they have such a fast reproductive rate. On my walk I mostly saw club fungi such as mushrooms which were growing through decaying matters. 

club fungi

 fungi on tree(crusticose lichen)

fungi on leaves

club fungi

 club fungi (shelf fungi)

 underneath fungi

Jelly fungi

sac fungi

Aquarium field trip !

I think the purpose of this trip was getting a first had look at all the animals in their habitats and what variety of species we have in our world. The goal was to see how animals act with each other and how some have symbiotic relationships and which ones don't. This was my first time going to the Vancouver aquarium so I had a lot of fun and i was fascinated by all the beautiful marine animals we have. It was cool seeing how they act , My favourite were probably the cute monkeys, but i really wish i could have seen the sloth better!

1) Describe the symbiotic relationship between the Clown fish and sea anemones ?The clown fish attracts other animals because of its bright orange colour for the anemones to sting and eat and the anemones give protection  for the clown fish. The anemone also gets protein and food from the clown fish's poop.

2)Why do otters spend so much time cleaning their coats ?
They spend so much time cleaning their coats  because oils and other things get caught in their fun and this will cause them to loose their insulation from the cold. 
3)Before 1900, where could you find sea otters? when were then reintroduced?Before 1900 sea otters were mainly found in northern Japan and along the west coast of north america to Baja California in mexico, also around the north pacific. They were introduced in Big Sur California under the protection of the International Fur Seal Treaty.



4)What colour are the sea anemones next to the otter tank? 
They are pink orange and purple.

5)Pick your favourite marine invertebrate and describe what adaptations it has for survival.
My favourite marine invertebrate were the jelly fish.

6) what is the scientific name for the beluga whale? How many were there at the Vancouver aquarium?
the scientific name is Dephinapterus, there were two beluga whales at the Dephinapterus, there were two beluga whales at the vancouver aquarium. aquarium. 

7) Find the potbelly sea horses. Describe their movement.
They move with the water and wrap their tails around corals.


8)Find and write down the name of an organism that looks like a human nervous system organ.














9)Find a starry flounder. What two interesting adaptations does it have ?
They have pigment cells that allow them to change their colouring to camouflage with the sand on the bottom  their tail also allows them to help throw sand on top of them to help to hide from predators.


10)Find the moon-jellies. Describe their movement. What adaptations do the moon jellies have for feeding on plankton?
They push through the water in a rhythmic motion. The foods collect on the surface of the jellyfish and become caught up in the animal's mucus


11)Find the pacific octopus. What purpose do the white suction cups on its arm have? why is it knows as one of natures best predators.
The suction cups allow the octopus to stick on to surfaces and move, they also make it easy to attach onto pray easily and bring them to its mouth to eat it.

12)What are the different feeding types in stellar sea lions?

13)Take a walk in the Amazon Rain Forest . Find the Caiman. Where did it come from?
They come from subtropical regions of Africa, India, South-east Asia, Australia, North, Central and South America


14)Describe the colour of the crocodile. why do you think that is a good survival strategy?
The colour of the crocodile is greenish brown, I think this is helpful because they can easily camouflage with the forest around them and also in the swamps. 


 15)what is the name of the largest fish in the aquarium?

16)Find a vegitariam fish in the Amazon flooded forest. what is its name? what does it eat?












17)When are piranhas the biggest threat to humans?
The red belly piranhas are the biggest threat to humans, and when they smell blood in the water. 




18)Find the sharks. How many bones do they have?
Sharks do not have any bones they have cartilage and their teeth are make of hard enamel.

19)What other animals are found in the shark tank?
There is a turtle and many different kinds of fish and bottom feeders. 

20)Find the scientific name of the giant red sea urchin. Describe an adoption the urchin has for survival in its aquatic environment?
the scientific name is Stronglyocentrotus franciscanus. They are nocturnal because they are sensitive to light they also also to protect themselves from predators they react immediately if something sharp touches their shell, they point their spines towards where they are being poked.

21)How do Archerfish find their food?
They hover under its pray then spray a jet of water on the insect to knock it unto the water then they eat it. 

22)Find the name of the sea turtle in the tropic zone.
the turtle is called the green sea turtle