ARELLANO UNIVERSITY

Juan Sumulong Campus – Senior High School Department

2600 Legarda St., Sampaloc, Manila

GENERAL BIOLOGY II
FROG DISSECTION
Name: Date:
Section: Teacher:

Introduction:
Frogs belong to the class amphibian. Although many differences exist between humans
and frogs, the basic body parts are similar. Humans and frogs both belong to the phylum
chordata.

Objectives:

● To become acquainted with the external & internal anatomy of the frog

● To investigate the anatomy and organ system of the frog.

● To observe the relationship between organ structure and function.

● To compare frog & human anatomy to better understand body systems.

Laboratory Equipment

Frog Lab gown Water Pins Dissecting pan

Mask Dissecting kit Alcohol Jar Surgical Gloves
Safety Information:
1. Conduct yourself in a responsible and safe manner at all times during the dissection.
2. Wear safety glasses while you are dissecting even if you wear glasses or contact
lenses.
Contact lenses can hold chemicals in the eye increasing the potential damage in the
event of an accidental splashing of chemicals into the eye.
3. Use the proper procedures described in the tutorial to pin the frog to the dissecting
pan. Do not dissect the frog while holding it.
4. Always keep your dissection tools in the dissection pan, when working and when
moving the pan.
5. Clean up the work area and return all equipment to the proper place when the
dissection is completed.
6. Remove nitrile gloves and throw them away in a waste container.
7. Carefully wash your hands before returning to your classroom.
I __________________________ understand the above statement and know the
consequences if I fail to follow lab rules.
 Signature Date

Procedures:

Part I: External Anatomy

1. Place a frog on a dissection tray.

2. Make sure the frog is right side up so that you can see the face, use the diagram
below to locate and identify the external features of the head.
3. Identify the eyes, which have a nictitating membrane that serves to moisten the eye.
4. Identify the tympanic membrane, or eardrum. It is located behind each eye (look at
figure 1 )
5. Find the external nares or nostrils (figure 1)
6. Find the digits, which are like fingers on both the fore & hind limbs (figure 2)
7. To determine the frog's sex, look at the hand digits, or fingers on its forelegs. A male
pad is an enlarged darker patched pad that the male uses to grasp a female during
mating.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Part II: Mouth

1. Open the mouth. Use the scissors to cut the corner of the mouth
where the maxilla and mandible join together.
2. Find the tongue and pull it out
3. Feel the maxillary teeth that are along the rim of the upper jaw. (Look at figure 3)
Notice that the only upper jaw has teeth.
4. Locate the glottis, it is a slit opening for the voice box on the floor of the mouth.
5. Find the esophagus at the rear of the mouth
Part III: External Anatomy

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. Check the circle to indicate that you found
the organs.
o 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.
o Peritoneum A spider-web like membrane that covers many of the organs; you
may carefully pick it off to get a clear view
o Liver--The largest structure of the 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.
o 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.
o Lungs - Locate the lungs by looking underneath and behind the heart and liver.
They are two spongy organs.
o Gall Bladder --Lift the lobes of the liver, there will be a small green sac under
the liver. This is the gallbladder, which stores bile. (hint: it kind of looks like a
booger)
o 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.
o 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.
o 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)
o Spleen--Return to the folds of the mesentery, this dark red spherical object
serves as a holding area for blood.
o 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
frogs mouth to the stomach. Open the frogs mouth and find the esophagus, poke
your probe into it and see where it leads.
If you have not located each of the organs above, do not continue on 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 round.
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.