The Dissection

You smell that? That must be our frog. Isn't he appetizing?

Picture of our specimen in anatomical position; fully dissected trunk with identified and labeled organs.

STEP 1:

To perform the dissection, we placed the specimen on the tray in its anatomical position, as you can see in the picture.

STEP 2:

We began by making a cut along its mid-sagittal plane, starting from the specimen’s pelvic region, throughout its entire trunk.

STEP 3:

We followed with cuts leading outwards from both ends of the previous cut in order to remove flaps of the skin so we could get a better look at the specimen’s innards.

STEP 4:

Once the trunk was exposed, we identified our specimen's gender (male) and identified all of the organs we could; we continued the mid-sagittal cut up to the cephalic region in order to expose the brain and tongue.

STEP 5:

Once we identified the brain, tongue, spinal cord and esophagus, we began cutting out and severing connective tissue so we could identify the last of the organs.

The Bullfrog

Here is all the basic information on Bullfrogs we could muster.

I. Bullfrog Taxonomy:

Bullfrog (Rana catesbiana)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Sub-Phylum: Vertebrata

Class: Amphibia

Order: Anura

Family: Ranidae

Genus: Rana

II. Bullfrog Cladogram:

   

III. Bullfrog Facts:

• Bullfrogs are territorial and solitary animals.

• They live primarily in marshes and ponds and are never too far away from a body of water.

• They eat anything they can swallow, and swallow everything whole. These include insects, spiders, crayfish, small birds, worms, small turtles, smaller frogs, etc.

• A Bullfrog's predators include birds of prey, raccoons and any other bigger animal.

• They are the only frogs to not have ridges on their backs and are easily identified by dark green spots located on their hind legs.

• They hibernate in the winter.

• They are most active at night making them nocturnal.

• Female Bullfrogs tend to be larger (8 in) than their male counterparts (6 in).

• They are the largest species of frog in North America.

• A female Bullfrogs' tympanum are about the size of their eye; a male's tympanum are bigger.

• The male attracts females with his mating call. Once a female is lured in, the male grabs the female with its front legs in its amplexus and fertilizes the female.

• A female Bullfrog can lay up to 20,000 eggs. These take 4-5 days to hatch and float on the surface of ponds. They taste rather badly to any predators and are usually avoided.

• Once the eggs have hatched, the tadpoles take 3-4 years to fully metamorphose. Like the eggs; Bullfrog tadpoles also taste bad to predators and are usually left alone.

• Bullfrogs prefer to ambush their prey when hunting.

• Bullfrogs can breathe through their skin, lungs and mouth lining. While underwater they close their nostrils and breath primarily through their skin.

Welcome to our blog

Hey guys. Welcome to our blog where we will discuss the dissection of our dearly beloved member of the amphibian royalty, Garkunkel. Feel free to check out our other discussions on bullfrogs in general and learn the cool facts that surround them. Please comment or ask questions afterwards, nerds.