Rat Dissection

Last week my class squeamishly dissected another mammal, a Rat, ick. In this dissection we got our rat nicknamed Stewart, who is a placental mammal and closely related to us humans and examined things like the respiratory system. In doing this I realized how closely related we all actually are, even though we don't look the same our ancestors are the same. When I first looked over the rat some dominant feature were apparent like its claws obviously helpful in the rats survival, as well as the fur covering it used to keep the endothermic animal warm. Prior to beginning the dissection we were given a couple of minutes to read through the steps and peer through pictures. However, like always this wasn't enough to prepare us for the horrors that hid beneath the unlucky rats skin. The first day of the dissection was filled with many disgusted screeches, however the second day many of us had to step it up and face the rat and all of its internal structures.



Question
1.) Your hands are easily the best tool in a dissection because, you can simply move around the structures more accurately as well you are able to feel the different organs.

2.) The objective for all the labels was to clearly show examples in an organized way easy for understanding the material in an accurate way.

3.)The rats tail seemed to have a lot less hair making it noticeably different from the rest of the body.

4.) The whiskers or vibrassae are sensory.

the whiskers help the rat sense their surroundings

5.) The rat featured bilateral symmetry meaning that both sides look the same. Ex if you cut the rat in half it would mirror itself.

6.) The circular sphincter takes this shape so it is better capable of covering tubes. Its job is to control the passing of food through these tubes.

8.) The rats liver is vital in filtering wastes from the blood and transforming them into to a form able to be excreted.

9.)The duodenum received its name through its meaning which is twelve finger breadths long or 25Cm.

10.) The appendix is where extra bacteria used to break down tough enzymes found in plants and such.

11.) The membrane is crucial due to the fact it separate layers, and also moistens the surface so there is no tension.

12.) The spleen cleans the blood of dead red blood cells using white blood cells.

13.) The diaphragm is a key component in respiration it helps contract and expand the ribs allowing air to exit and enter the lungs.

14.) The ventrical and atria have a few traits that distunguish them from eachother. The ventricles pumps blood to the body while the atria pumps the blood to the ventricle. The atria is smaller though because its job is simplier.

15.) The left ventricle is larger than the right because its job requires more force as it has to pump blood further at a higher pressure.

16.) The similarities between the male and females reproductive system is they both feature the pituitary gland.

17.) The kidneys change wastes in the blood to urine so they are able to excrete it as well as regulate the balance of water in the body.

18.)The thymus, thyroid and ardenal are part of the respiratory system.