On Tuesday, the green class started dissecting a frog. We finished it on Wednesday by removing all the organs and discussing what their functions are. We started out by cutting the frog open. Our group happened to get a male specimen. At this stage, I was feeling the frog's skin, and to my surprise, it was very rough and dry. I always felt that frogs were supposed to be slimy and slick, but then again, these probably aren't fresh.
When we got to the muscle of our frog, which I had named Copper in my mind, I was surprised to see how thick the muscle looked and felt. After cutting through the thick, chunky tissue, we finally got to the organs. The first thing we saw were the three different parts of the liver. My first thought was, why are they so brown? In my mind, the first color that comes into my head when I think liver is baby pink. I was also expecting to be able to see the veins, but I was disappointed with the way the liver looked. I was expecting a LOT more. We then lifted the liver up and out of the way. The first thing I wanted to see was the stomach. I was fascinated with the size of the stomach and how I could feel the firm ridges (muscles) along the sides. I was very amazed at the fact that the walls of the stomach weren't smooth at all. In fact, they were actually the complete opposite.
Moving on, the gallbladder and the intestines. The gallbladder was a little green sac underneath the liver. Honestly, out of all the colors in the world, I would have never guessed that it would be a forest green. The small intestine was taken out and stripped of the membrane that protected it. We then spread the small intestine out to its full length. That's when I could see the full value of the intestine. I was shocked at how tightly the intestine was coiled together, and how long it was in proportion to the frog's size. The large intestine. on the other hand, was quite short. We decided to cut it open, and we discovered some leftover waste product that had been in the process of being digested. Also, there was the spleen and the lungs. Since we had a male frog, we didn't find any eggs. The spleen reminded me of a kidney bean, small and red. They greatly resembled each other, especially since the spleen was the same deep red hue. My favorite part of the whole dissection was the heart. I was completely mesmerized by it, a tiny triangular element of the frog. I was awed to see such an important organ in front of my very own eyes. The two things I really wished we could do in this dissection was to see the frog's brain and to see the heart pumping by cutting the frog's spinal cord. Overall, this dissection was enticing and one of the best things I did on my birthday!!
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