Rat Dissection Lab

Rat Dissection

Today in Biology we did our last dissection of the year! The Rat Dissection! At first I was a  bit nervous to do this lab, but soon once we got closer to the organs, it became really interesting!

Here is a nice picture of what our Rat looked like before we started to learn about it's organs.

Here is a nice picture of what our Rat looked liked, and as you can see it has a yellow/white color, and is about 23 cm long.

This is the bottom of part if the rat which shows a general picture of what it's hands, feet ,and belly looks like.

This is a close-up of the mouth which has pretty big teeth, it's nose which is surrounded by whiskers, and it's front arms which assist it in eating and walking.

Here is the bottom half of the rat and from this photo, we can see that this rat is a Male because it has Testis. Also this picture shows a close-up of it's hind legs which help it make quick get-aways when in danger.

Once we started the dissecting, I couldn't help but notice how this rat innards were so similar to the Human's innards.

To make things easier, here are all the organs found in the rat all labelled and separated on nice clean paper towel. 

Finding Nemo - The Movie

Finding Nemo

We have all probably watched Finding Nemo at least one time, or in my case, many times. But now that I have taken Biology 11, when I watched it again a few days ago, I really noticed a ton of new things! For example, I saw many new things such as the random Flatworm that was just swimming, the Seahorse was with it's father (not the mother, because the father gives birth to the babies), and that fish that was just laying in the sand because it's skin was camouflage (a great way to hide from predators). Now that I have noticed all these new things, I also started to wonder interesting questions. Such as "Why did the Squid ink?", "How is that useful?", and "What allowed the Squid to ink?". A theme that I can relate to this movie is definitely "Evolution and Natural Selection" because throughout the movie I saw all sorts of different organisms which had different talents/abilities based on their daily lives. A great example of this is of the Shark that Marlin and Dory met. That shark was adapted to KILL. It had many rows of teeth great for eating, great sensory organs which can detect blood from far distances, and perfectly shaped fins making it great for swimming fast and making quick turns.

Second Final Question of Biology 11

Biology 11 in a Nutshell

During this semester, I have learned a ton of things in Biology from Interesting plants, to amazing animals, and even fascinating micro-organisms. So here are some of examples of my most interesting posts in Biology so far.

Organism named after a Celebrity

From doing this blog, I learned that mushrooms are actually more absorbent than i thought. Well not all mushrooms, just this particular one, which is why it was named after the Legendary Spongebob Squarepants. The most interesting thing I learned from this post is that you can actually wring out this mushroom just like an actual sponge because this mushroom has special spores that can absorb moisture from the air!

http://kenziebiology11.blogspot.ca/2013/11/mushroom-named-after-spongebob.html

Amazing Organism

This post is truly fascinating! This post talks about how the Axoltol has special cells which allow the Axoltol to regrow their limbs after they have been damaged or been removed. As soon as scientists figure out what give Axoltols this amazing ability, I'm sure they will try to pass this trait onto humans.

http://kenziebiology11.blogspot.ca/2013/11/the-self-healing-axoltol.html

Interesting Plants

After reading about this plant, I knew that I wanted to dedicate a whole post giving the details on this plant. Here is a detailed summary about it. When this special plant senses a change in pressure (such as movement) the vacuoles in the leaf lose water making the plant to appear "dead". In my opinion, I think this is very useful in the wild because I never heard of an organism that likes to eat dead plants or plants that even look dead.

http://kenziebiology11.blogspot.ca/2013/12/plants-with-powers.html

Cnideria

From this post, you will learn all about the cnidarians and their way of living from feeding, digestion, and all the way to their excretion. A fun fact about Cnidarians are that they have Stinging cells that enable them to stun their prey making it easier to consume food. Examples of Cnidarians are Anemones and Jellyfish.

http://kenziebiology11.blogspot.ca/2013/12/cnideria.html

Anthropods

The Anthropod that I selected for this post is the one and only Mantis Shrimp. This awesome organism is like an underwater ninja! They can strike animals with strength faster than a gun, they can boil water just by striking animals, and they have special eyes that have 16 color-receptive cones while humans only have 3! And if you think all of this is cool, well I was just getting started! Click on the link below to all the details!

http://kenziebiology11.blogspot.ca/2014/01/awesomest-animal-in-world.html

Conclusion:

Out of all the blogs I have completed, I'd say the post about the Mantis Shrimp is my number favourite post! Not only because it was fun to make, it is also JAM-PACKED with INFORMATION! You might be thinking, how is this related the Evolution and Natural Selection? Well instead of writing it all out again just click on the link above and read the second paragraph. This will show you have the Awesome Mantis Shrimp has evolved to become very successful in the Tropical Waters.

First Final Question of Biology 11 - Animal Kingdom

Final Question #1

Throughout this Semester, we done quite a few Dissections now. So to "Connect" all these dissections together, I will be giving detailed information about all the stuff we dissected and then comparing the all together to show how all of the animals have adapted to being what they are today.

Digestion:

Roundworm (Phylum Nematoda)

•  Roundworms have 2 openings, 1 for ingesting , and the other for excreting wastes.
• They contain no stomach for storing food so the food just enters the mouth - pharynx - intestines - rectum - anus.

Earthworm (Phylum Annelida)

• Also have 2 openings
• When Roundworm eat the food go through the mouth - pharynx - esophagus - crop (stomach-like) - gizzard (small intestine) - long intestine - anus

Grasshopper (Phylum Anthropoda)

• Has 2 openings
• Mouth - pharynx - esophagus - crop - gizzard - anus
• Has 3 main parts; Foregut, Midgut, and Hindgut
• Foregut - enters the grashopper at the mouth where saliva breaks the food down as it enters the gizzard
• Midgut - Where the body start to absorb the nutrients by releasing digestive juices into the gizzard
• Hindgut - releases unabsorbed food by the anus

Starfish (Phylum Echinodermata)

• Has 2 openings
• Mouth - Stomach - Intestine - Anus
• The starfish pushes it's stomach out of its mouth and releases digestive juices onto it's prey
• From here, it absorbs it's partially digested prey into it's body with it's stomach and finishes the digestive process thanks to the Pyloric Caeca which is found in it's arms
• Excretes waste through anus

Grass Frog (Phylum Vertebrata)

• Has 2 openings
• Mouth - Pharynx - Esophagus - Stomach - Small Intestine - Large Intestine - Anus
• Similar digestive system to humans but instead they mainly feed on insects such as flies

Reproduction:

Roundworm (Phylum Nematoda)

•  Have separate sexes for both male and female
• Internal Fertilization
• Can produce 200 000 during one time

Earthworm (Phylum Annelida)

• Are Hermaphrodites which mean that each roundworm contain both male and female parts
• Internal reproduction by releasing sperm into each other and enters their clitellum
• Cocoon forms on the end of the clitellum and soon the sperm retrieved from the other worm reaches their eggs and thus resulting in fertilization.
• Produces 3-5 worms each cocoon

Grasshopper (Phylum Anthropoda)

• Have Seperate sexes for both male and female
• Internal Fertilization
• Produces 8-25 offspring
• Newborns will undergo Metamorphisis (shedding skin) leading to maturity

Starfish (Phylum Echinodermata)

• Are Hermaphrodites
• Can reproduce Sexually by using it's gonads to release sperm and eggs into the water for external fertilization
• Can reproduce Asexually by Binary Fission which is the process of cutting/or a radial arm of the starfish falling and containing a gonad. From here the arm will grow a new body and the body will grow a new arm

Grass Frog (Phylum Vertebrata)

• Have Separate sexes for both male and female
• External Fertilization
• Can produce about 1000-4000 eggs at a time but only 1 out of every 2000 make it to adulthood
• Eggs are laid in water but after tadpoles reach maturity they can also live on land

Respiration:

Roundworm (Phylum Nematoda)

•  Has no formal respiration
• Oxygen enters the body and releases CO2 by Difussion

Earthworm (Phylum Annelida)

• Have no lungs
• Breathe through their skin by diffusion.

Grasshopper (Phylum Anthropoda)

• Also do not have lungs
• Instead they have Spiracles located on the sides of the body which branches out to the trachea and where Oxygen and CO2 can be exchanged.

Starfish (Phylum Echinodermata)

• Have no lungs
• Have Ampulla found in it's arms which assist in respiration and circulation

Grass Frog (Phylum Vertebrata)

• Have lungs
• Respirate through lungs like humans
• Can also respirate through their skin which is why their skin is always so moist

Circulation:

Roundworm (Phylum Nematoda)

•  Have no heart or blood vessels

Earthworm (Phylum Annelida)

• Have a close Circulatory system
• Have 3 main vessels Aortic Arches, Dorsal Blood Vessels, and the Ventral Blood Vessels
• Aortic Arches - pump blood into other 2 vessels
• Dorsal Blood Vessels - carries blood to front of the body
• Ventral Blood Vessels - carries blood to the back of the body

Grasshopper (Phylum Anthropoda)

• Has an Open Circulatory System
• This means that the blood does not transport itself throughout the body but instead just floats in the body not following a specific route
• Although it does not have a route, it does have an Aorta (Heart) which still pumps the blood to provide the circulation of blood.

Starfish (Phylum Echinodermata)

• Have a closed Circulatory system
• Have a Water Vascular System because they live under water
• Circulate water through the Madreporite found on the Aboral/ Top surface of the Starfish

Grass Frog (Phylum Vertebrata)

• Have a closed Circulatory System
• Circulates blood through by it's heart which branches out to many veins and arteries
• Very similar to Humans

Nervous System:

Roundworm (Phylum Nematoda)

• Have 2 nerve cords (Dorsal Nerve cord & Ventral Nerve Cord) that transmit impulses to various cells and tissues of the Roundworm's Body

Earthworm (Phylum Annelida)

• Has a simple nervous system which consists of a Celebral Ganglion, ventral Nerve Cord, and the Segmental Ganglions
• The Celebral Ganglion acts as the brain while the other 2 recieve the information and make the body move.

Grasshopper (Phylum Anthropoda)

• The Nervous system consists of the Brain, the Ventral Nerve Cord, the Eyes, and it's antennae
• The body is still able to walk and jump even though the brain has been damaged or been removed
• It's eyes and antennae are most important because grasshoppers mainly survive by the signals it receives by it's antennae.

Starfish (Phylum Echinodermata)

• Have no brain
• Only have eyespots on the end of each arm which is used for detecting it's surroundings

Grass Frog (Phylum Vertebrata)

• Has a brain which is connected to it's Spinal cord which then transport information to all parts of it's body
• And yes, it is very similar to the Human's Nervous System

Conclusion:

Now that we can see how each organism functions, we can now compare them to how they have technically evolved from each other. As you can see as you go down from the Roundworm all the way to the Grass Frog you can see the increase in complexity in all systems. For example from the Roundworm having no source of respiration, the Grass Frog has a complete set of lungs which is almost exactly the same as the humans. This is because Roundworms live in Intestines and have no need for oxygen but instead depend on their host for survival while on the other hand, Frogs are independent and need lungs in order to survive just like Humans! Given this information, I'd say that Frogs are much more successful in the environment because of how they can survive independently even though they may not be the biggest predator out there. So all in all, what I'm trying to say that evolution has mainly been based on habitats. For example, if we need something, our species would evolve to help that specific need and in this case frogs is much more evolved than the roundworm.

This means that in my perspective the Earthworm, Grasshopper, and Starfish are between the roundworm and frog based on their evolution and their traits through Natural Selection.

Frog Dissection Lab

Frog Dissection

Today in Biology we were able to do the one and only Frog Dissection! I was really excited to this this Lab because I've seen many show/movies with children dissecting frogs but today was the day I was able to dissect a frog myself!

Top of Frog

The frog looks like the average Grass Frog, with a green and brown body with a few black spots scattered throughout. It has 2 small front legs and 2 long back legs which are used for jumping.

Bottom of Frog

The whole bottom side is filled with a yellow/white colour.

Here is a close-up of the frog's hands (front legs). They don't look that special, other than maybe using them to help land or grip onto a surface.

In this photo you can see that the back legs of the frog are "web-like" which makes it very useful for swimming in water.

Frogs are well-known for their long tongues for catching bugs but unfortunately the size cannot be determined because I wasn't able to pull it out maybe due to the fact that this frog has been "not living" for quite a while now. But you can definitely see that the tongue is still there and fresh.

Once we were able to cut through the skin and muscle, we saw EVERYTHING! It was as if I was living a dream because of how similar the organs are to the humans.

After some thorough dissecting, we were able to separate all the organs to show a clear picture or in other words a "Smaller version of the Human Organs".

Starfish Dissection Lab

Starfish Dissection:

Today we did another dissection! This time we dissected a Starfish!

Front/Top View (a.k.a. Aboral Surface)

Back/Bottom View (a.k.a. Oral Surface)

As you can see, the starfish has a red/brown colour to it and has 5 radial arms. It is more or less symmetrical and it's texture is quite rough. It is rough only on the top while the bottom is much more smooth because of it's tube feet.

That little spot is called the Madreporite and it is where the starfish intakes water for daily survival.

In this photo, you can take a closer look at the Starfish's mouth and Tube Feet (which is used for movement)

Once we cut open 1 radial arm we can see that it consists of many different things such as the Pyloric Caeca and the Ampulla. The Pyloric Caeca produces digestive glands, while the Ampulla are part of the Water Vascular System.

Also in the radial arms, are where the Gonads are located which are used for reproduction purposes.

Right in the middle is where the Cardiac Stomach is located and is pretty much the most important organ for a starfish. If this parts gets damaged, the starfish has a pretty low chance of survival! But if you cut of an arm and it consists of a gonad, then that arm will grow back and the arm that came off will grow a new starfish!

Conclusion:

When I was doing this Lab, I was really surprised to see that the arms were filled with much more complex things instead of just basic muscle tissue! Also another question I have a bout Starfish are How long is the life of an Average Starfish.

Grasshopper Dissection Lab

Grasshopper Dissection

Today we got the chance to dissect a Grasshopper! Although it was quite harder to dissect compared to the roundworms, it definitely was much more interesting!

This is a picture of our Grasshopper and as you can see, it does not have an ovipositor which means that it is a male.

Here are where the Head, Thorax, and Abdomen are located. And look, this grasshopper has 7 segments found on it's abdomen!

Here is a closer look at it's head all it's features.

This is a close-up of the grasshopper's legs. In this photo, only 2 legs are present, but all together the grasshopper has 6 legs.

Ever wonder what gives the grasshopper that extra "jump"? Well here is a closer look at it's wings, which make a huge impact when it comes to jumping.

Now that we have made observations on it's outward appearance, now we can start dissecting! Although it might not have all the special organs that humans have, grasshoppers do have unique organs. For example, their crop is like the storage place where food is stored before it becomes digest and it's gizzard are where enzymes are released to digest the food which then leads to the stomach.

Conlusion:

From doing this lab, one question that I still have about the grasshopper is how does the grasshopper transfer signals to it's body. In other words, I would still like to learn more about the Grasshopper's Brain/Nervous System.

Awesomest Animal in the World!!!

Mantis Shrimp:

In my opinion, the Mantis shrimp could possible be the coolest animal in the world! Given the name "Mantis Shrimp" because of how it resembles both a Praying Mantis and a Shrimp. The reason why I think the Mantis shrimp is so awesome is because of how the raptorial appendages in front of their body can strike an animal so fast that the water around them boils in a process called Supercavitation! From here, the Supercavitation can produce cavitation bubbles that when the bubbles collapse, they can still kill the target without even touching it! This is because the collapsing bubbles can release more than 5000 Kelvins (Which is more than 4700 degrees Celsius!) of heat and even emit bursts of light in a process called Sonoluminescence! That's CRAZY!!! And guess what?! Although it is only 12 inches in length, these creatures are known to take down Octupi!


Fun Fact: Mantis Shrimps have 16 color-receptive cones while Humans only have 3!!


As you might have guessed, the reason why the Mantis Shrimp is very successful is because of how it can capture food with ease and is able to see far better than a human can even dream of! Another fact that adds to the Mantis' Shrimps success is because of how colourful it's appearance is which looks like it is often flashing thanks to the reflection of the light. This is considered an advantage because this "flashing" can prevent others from attacking or even trying to kill the Mantis Shrimp.
Although it walks on the bottom of the water, it can still receive light because Mantis Shrimp are usually found in shallow tropical waters.


Fun Fact: Mantis Shrimp have limbs so strong that they are under research to help make Body armor for Combat Troops! This means that although they don't affect the ecosystem as much as other animals (such as bees) they have been under research to maybe help Humans in the future!


Here is an awesome website that tells a great story about the wonders of the Mantis Shrimp:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp


Fun Fact: Mantis Shrimp are strong enough to break through aqauriums! So they don't make really great house pets.


Now want to see the Mantis Shrimp in action? Click down below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM

Roundworm Dissections!

Roundworms:

Today in Biology we got to chance to dissect real-life roundworms! Although it was quite smelly, it definitely was really interesting.

Here is a what our Roundworm looked like:

 

We found out that our Roundworm was a Male because of how it had a "Hook" on one end which they use for reproduction.

Once we started to cut open the worm, we found spaghetti-like structures which we found out later to be the worm's testicles.

Also we found a long/flat structure running throughout the whole roundworm and tha turned out to be the worm's intestine.