Pre-Lab Questions: (Can be found below or researched)
1) What are the top and bottom sides of the frog called?
The top side of the frog is called the dorsal side and the bottom side is called the ventral
side.
2) What type of frog are we dissecting?
It appears to be a Geunther’s marsupial frog due to their physical descriptions being
matched in the passage below: two maxillary teeth at the sides of the mouth and teeth
in between. This can be assumed due to the fact Geunther’s marsupial frogs are the
only species known to have teeth.
3) Why are frogs said to have “two lives”?
It is a play on the fact frogs start out as tadpoles in the water, being unable to live on
land until they grow. Once grown, they possess limbs which then make them able to live
on land, letting them experience both worlds.
4) How do frogs reproduce?
Frogs reproduce through the testes in the male reproductive system creating sperm
which is then carried through the sperm ducts to the cloaca. From there, the sperm is
moved outside the body. The ovaries produce eggs which are carried through oviducts
to the uteri, and finally through the cloaca outside the body.
5) Since frogs lungs are so poorly developed, what else do frogs do to breathe?
Underwater, frogs use their skin to breathe through gas exchange by filling up the lungs
with water. On land, they can use their lungs.
Background:
As members of the class Amphibia, frogs may live some of their adult lives on land, but they must return
to water to reproduce. Eggs are laid and fertilized in water. On the outside of the frog’s head are two
external nares, or nostrils; two tympani, or eardrums; and two eyes, each of which has three lids. The
third lid, called the nictitating membrane, is transparent. Inside the mouth are two internal nares, or
openings into the nostrils; two vomerine teeth in the middle of the roof of the mouth; and two maxillary
teeth at the sides of the mouth. Also inside the mouth behind the tongue is the pharynx, or throat.
In the pharynx, there are several openings; one into the esophagus, the tube into which food is
swallowed; one into the glottis, through which air enters the larynx, or voice box; and two into the
Eustachian tubes, which connect the pharynx to the ear. The digestive system consists of the organs of
the digestive tract, or food tube, and the digestive glands. From the esophagus, swallowed food
moves into the stomach and then into the small intestine. Bile is a digestive juice made by the liver and
stored in the gallbladder. Bile flows into a tube called the common bile duct, into which pancreatic juice,
a digestive juice from the pancreas, also flow. The contents of the bile duct flow into the small intestine,
where most of the digestion and absorption of food into the bloodstream takes place.
Indigestible materials pass through the large intestine and then into the cloaca, the common exit chamber
of the digestive, excretory, and reproductive systems. The respiratory system consists of the nostrils
and the larynx, which opens into two lungs, hollow sacs with thin walls. The walls of the lungs are filled
with capillaries, which are microscopic blood vessels through which materials pass into and out of the
blood. The circulatory system consists of the heart, blood vessels, and blood. The heart has two
receiving chambers, or atria, and one sending chamber, or ventricle. Blood is carried to the heart in
vessels called veins. Veins from different parts of the body enter the right and left atria. Blood from both
atria goes into the ventricle and then is pumped into the arteries, which are blood vessels that carry blood
away from the heart.
The urinary system consists of the frog’s kidneys, ureters, bladder, and cloaca. The kidneys are
organs that excrete urine. Connected to each kidney is a ureter, a tube through which urine passes into
the urinary bladder, a sac that stores urine until it passes out of the body through the cloaca. The organs
of the male reproductive system are the testes, sperm ducts, and cloaca. Those of the female system
are the ovaries, oviducts, uteri, and cloaca. The testes produce sperm, or male sex cells, which move
through sperm ducts, tubes that carry sperm into the cloaca, from which the sperm move outside the
body. The ovaries produce eggs, or female sex cells, which move through oviducts into the uteri, then
through the cloaca outside the body.
The central nervous system of the frog consists of the brain, which is enclosed in the skull, and the
spinal cord, which is enclosed in the backbone. Nerves branch out from the spinal cord. The frog’s
skeletal and muscular systems consist of its framework of bones and joints, to which nearly all the
voluntary muscles of the body are attached. Voluntary muscles, which are those over which the frog has
control, occur in pairs of flexors and extensors. When a flexor of a leg or other body part contracts, that
part is bent. When the extensor of that body part contracts, the part straightens.