So...my blog has sort of become all about my biology right now, but I promise that I am doing other things! But right now, my biology dissections seem to be the most interesting thing. So here you go! I hope I don't gross anyone out. You don't have to read on if you don't want to, but here are pictures and steps from my fetal pig dissection.
Taking the pig out of the bag and talking about the steps of the dissection.
Here is the little piggy. It's a girl! Kinda sad, she reminded me of Piglet.
"Hog tying" the sweet little dear to the dissection pan. Which really doesn't work to describe that because hog tying is when you tie all the feet together. But it kept her still while we worked.
Beginning to cut. We started below the rib cage and worked down. First you cut through the layer of skin, then you cut though the muscles to see the organs.
Cutting the skin.
Cutting through the muscle.
All the skin and muscle cut away. You can see the intestines, liver, and diaphragm.
All the skin and muscle cut away. You can see the intestines, liver, and diaphragm.
Looking into the mouth. Her tongue was kind of hanging out, like a Dilbert character.
Mom wanted to see more than just the top of my head in one of these pictures.
Starting to cut up toward the neck.
All finished! It is hard to see in the pictures, but I was able to identify (starting from the lower end) the large intestine, the small intestine, the stomach, the liver, the diaphragm, the lungs, the heart, the rib cage, the thyroid gland, and the larynx.
One thing that is very interesting to observe when dissecting a fetal pig is the fact that there internal systems are laid out very similar to our own.
I have really enjoyed the last few dissections I have done. The next thing I will dissect will be a frog. I shall share pictures when I do that!! I hope you enjoyed my post, and aren't too grossed out.
Have a great day!!
'becca
