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Frog Dissection Student Guide

This document provides instructions for dissecting a frog and identifying its internal organs. Students are instructed to cut open the frog's abdominal muscles and pin back the body wall to expose the organs. They are then asked to locate 11 organs, including the fat bodies, peritoneum, liver, heart, lungs, gall bladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, spleen, and esophagus. Additional sections provide instructions for removing and measuring the stomach and small intestine. The document concludes by describing the structures of the frog's urogenital system, including the kidneys, testes, oviducts, bladder, and cloaca.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
46 views3 pages

Frog Dissection Student Guide

This document provides instructions for dissecting a frog and identifying its internal organs. Students are instructed to cut open the frog's abdominal muscles and pin back the body wall to expose the organs. They are then asked to locate 11 organs, including the fat bodies, peritoneum, liver, heart, lungs, gall bladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, spleen, and esophagus. Additional sections provide instructions for removing and measuring the stomach and small intestine. The document concludes by describing the structures of the frog's urogenital system, including the kidneys, testes, oviducts, bladder, and cloaca.

Uploaded by

ladyv939
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

STUDENT GUIDE TO THE FROG DISSECTION

Instructions:

1. Place the frog in the dissecting pan ventral side up.


2. Use scissors to lift the abdominal muscles away from the body cavity. Cut along the midline of the
body to the forelimbs.
3. Make transverse (horizontal) cuts near the arms and legs.
4. Life the flaps of the body wall and pin back. *If your specimen is a female, the body may be filled
with eggs. You may need to remove these eggs to view the organs.

Locate each of the organs below. Put a Check on the space provided to indicate that you found the
organs. ___

1. Fat Bodies- Spaghetti shaped structures that have a bright orange or yellow color, if you have a
particularly fat frog, these fat bodies may need to be removed to see the other structures. Usually,
they are located just on the inside of the abdominal wall. ___

2. Peritoneum -A spiderweb like membrane that covers many of the organs; you may carefully pick it
off to get a clear view. ___

3. Liver -The largest structure of the body cavity. This brown colored organ is composed of three lobes.
The right lobe, the left anterior lobe, and the left posterior lobe. The liver is not primarily an organ of
digestion, it does secrete a digestive juice called bile. Bile is needed for the proper digestion of fats.
___

4. Heart - at the top of the liver, the heart is a triangular structure. The left and right atrium can be
found at the top of the heart. A single ventricle located at the bottom of the heart. The large vessel
extending out from the heart is the conus arteriosus. ___

5. Lungs - Locate the lungs by looking underneath and behind the heart and liver. They are two
spongy organs. ___

6. Gall Bladder - Lift the lobes of the liver, there will be a small green sac under the liver. This is the
gall bladder, which stores bile. (hint: it kind of looks like a booger) ___

7. Stomach - Curving from underneath the liver is the stomach. The stomach is the first major site of
chemical digestion. Frogs swallow their meals whole. Follow the stomach to where it turns into the
small intestine. The pyloric sphincter valve regulates the exit of digested food from the stomach to
the small intestine. ___

8. Small Intestine -Leading from the stomach. The first straight portion of the small intestine is called
the duodenum, the curled portion is the ileum. The ileum is held together by a membrane called the
mesentery. Note the blood vessels running through the mesentery, they will carry absorbed nutrients
away from the intestine. Absorption of digested nutrients occurs in the small intestine. ___

9. Large Intestine- As you follow the small intestine down, it will widen into the large intestine. The
large intestine leads to the cloaca, which is the last stop before solid wastes, sperm, eggs, and urine
exit the frog's body. (The word "cloaca" means sewer) ___

10. Spleen- Return to the folds of the mesentery, this dark red spherical object serves as a holding area
for blood. ___

11. Esophagus- Return to the stomach and follow it upward, where it gets smaller is the beginning of
the esophagus. The esophagus is the tube that leads from the frog’s mouth to the stomach. Open
the frog’s mouth and find the esophagus, poke your probe into it and see where it leads. ___
STOP! If you have not located each of the organs above, do not continue
to the next sections!
Removal of the Stomach:
▪ Cut the stomach out of the frog and open it up. You may find what remains of the frog's last meal in
there. Look at the texture of the stomach on the inside. What did you find in the stomach?

Measuring the Small intestine:


▪ Remove the small intestine from the body cavity and carefully separate the mesentery from it.
Stretch the small intestine out and measure it. Now measure your frog. Record the measurements
below in centimeters. Frog length: _______ cm Intestine length ________ cm

UROGENITAL SYSTEM
The frog's reproductive and excretory system is combined into one system called the urogenital system.
You will need to know the structures for both the male and female frog.

▪ Kidneys - flattened bean shaped organs located at the lower back of the frog, near the spine. They
are often a dark color. The kidneys filter wastes from the blood. Often the top of the kidneys have
yellowish stringy fat bodies attached.

▪ Testes - in male frogs, these organs are located at the top of the kidneys, they are pale colored and
roundish.

▪ Oviducts - females do not have testes, though you may see a curly structure around the outside of
the kidney, these are the oviducts. Oviducts are where eggs are produced. Males can have
structures that look similar, but serve no actual purpose. In males, they are called vestigial oviducts.

▪ Bladder - An empty sac located at the lowest part of the body cavity. The bladder stores urine.

▪ Cloaca - mentioned again as part of the urogenital system urine, sperm and eggs exit here. Label
the parts of the urogenital system

Post Lab Questions:

1. The membrane holds the coils of the small intestine together: _________________________
2. This organ is found under the liver, it stores bile: ___________________________
3. Name the 3 lobes of the liver: _____________________, ____________________,
____________________
4. The organ that is the first major site of chemical digestion: _______________________
5. Eggs, sperm, urine and wastes all empty into this structure: __________________________
6. The small intestine leads to the: _______________________________
7. The esophagus leads to the: ______________________________
8. Yellowish structures that serve as an energy reserve: _________________________
9. The first part of the small intestine (straight part): ____________________________
10. After food passes through the stomach it enters the: _________________________
11. A spiderweb like membrane that covers the organs: ___________________________
12. Regulates the exit of partially digested food from the stomach: _____________________
13. The large intestine leads to the _______________________
14. Organ found within the mesentery that stores blood: __________________________
15. The largest organ in the body cavity: __________________________
Label the parts of the Urinary System

Label the diagram:


A. _____________________________
B. _____________________________
C. _____________________________
D. _____________________________
E. _____________________________
F. _____________________________
G. _____________________________
H. _____________________________
I. _____________________________
J. _____________________________
K. _____________________________
L. _____________________________
M. _____________________________
N. _____________________________ LEOVIGILDO O. ICUTAN JR. & ISABELO G. RAMOS
Subject Teachers, General Biology 2

Common questions

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Food enters the frog's digestive system through the mouth and travels down the esophagus to the stomach, which serves as the primary site for chemical digestion. The food is mixed with gastric juices and broken down; the pyloric sphincter regulates its passage into the small intestine, initiating the absorption phase. The small intestine, consisting of the duodenum and ileum, continues digestion with the help of enzymes and bile. Nutrients are absorbed through the intestinal walls and carried by blood vessels in the mesentery to the rest of the body. Finally, the indigestible material moves into the large intestine, reaching the cloaca where remaining waste is expelled .

Fat bodies in frogs are significant as they serve as critical energy reserves, particularly important during periods of dormancy and breeding. These spaghetti-shaped structures, bright orange or yellow, are located inside the abdominal wall and are often attached to other organs like the kidneys. They provide energy by storing lipids, which can be metabolized during times when direct food intake does not meet energy requirements, such as during hibernation or when resources are scarce. The adaptability provided by these reserves supports the frog's survivability across diverse environments .

The cloaca serves as a common cavity at the end of the digestive system through which waste products, sperm, eggs, and urine pass before leaving the frog's body. As a multifunctional exit point, the cloaca has evolved to efficiently manage different waste and reproductive products through a single opening, showcasing an evolutionary advantage for amphibians. This structure reflects the amphibious lifestyle of frogs, needing to manage both terrestrial and aquatic environmental interactions. Its existence provides insights into primitive vertebrate characteristics, suggesting an ancestral lineage shared with other animals exhibiting similar anatomical features .

The mesentery is a membrane that holds the coils of the small intestine together and contains blood vessels that traverse this structure. It plays a pivotal role in the frog's digestive system by anchoring intestines, allowing for efficient digestion and preventing knotting. The blood vessels within the mesentery are crucial for carrying absorbed nutrients from the intestine to the rest of the body. As nutrients are absorbed through the intestinal walls, they enter the bloodstream via these vessels, facilitating the distribution of digested nutrients throughout the frog's body .

The peritoneum is a spiderweb-like membrane covering many of the organs in a frog's body cavity. During dissection, carefully picking this membrane off is essential to gain a clear view of underlying organs such as the liver, stomach, and intestines. The removal process is significant because it allows students or scientists to examine the arrangement of internal organs more closely and understand their physical relationships within the body cavity. This insight is crucial for studying organ function and structure correlation in comparative anatomy .

The frog's stomach is a curving organ located under the liver and serves as the first major site of chemical digestion. Its structure is designed to accommodate the swallowing of whole meals, which it begins to break down using both mechanical and chemical means. The pyloric sphincter valve at the stomach's end regulates the passage of partially digested food into the small intestine, ensuring proper digestion before nutrients are absorbed. The stomach's muscular walls and acidic environment help in breaking down food particles, allowing enzymes to further catabolize nutrients, making them absorbable .

Frog lungs are essential for their dual life in aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Structurally, frog lungs are simpler and less developed than mammalian lungs, consisting of two spongy sacs located behind and below the heart and liver. Unlike the alveoli-rich mammalian lungs, frog lungs have larger internal spaces with fewer divisions, facilitating the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide via simple diffusion. Their reduced complexity reflects the prominence of cutaneous respiration, where gas exchange also occurs through their skin, significantly raising respiratory efficiency when in moist environments .

The frog's liver is the largest organ in the body cavity and is composed of three lobes: the right lobe, the left anterior lobe, and the left posterior lobe. Although the liver is not primarily an organ of digestion, it secretes bile, a digestive juice crucial for the proper digestion of fats. Each lobe plays a part in producing this bile, which the gall bladder then stores under the liver until needed during digestion. This organ is critical for detoxifying blood, metabolizing nutrients, and storing vital nutrients and compounds that support digestion and general metabolism .

The frog's urogenital system is a perfect case of evolutionary adaptation for amphibian life, balancing aquatic and terrestrial living. For instance, the cloaca functions as a convergence point for excretory and reproductive systems, allowing frogs to efficiently manage waste and reproductive products with one structure. The kidneys are adept at filtering blood to maintain water and electrolyte balance, crucial for survival in fluctuating environments. Variations like vestigial oviducts in males reflect evolutionary remnants pointing to ancestral traits suitable for land and water adaptation, showing how these structures evolved to support reproduction and excretion across environments .

In male frogs, the urogenital system includes the testes, which are pale-colored, roundish organs located at the top of the kidneys and are responsible for producing sperm. Males also possess vestigial oviducts, which resemble the female's oviducts but serve no function. Females, in contrast, have oviducts that encircle the kidneys; these curly structures are where egg production occurs. Both sexes have kidneys that filter blood wastes and a cloaca, where urine, sperm, eggs, and wastes exit. The bladder, located at the lowest part of the body cavity, stores urine in both males and females .

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