Prelab

Background:
As members of the class Amphibia, frogs may live some of their adult lives
on land, but they must return to water to reproduce. Eggs are laid and
fertilized in water. On the outside of the frog’s head are two external nares,
or nostrils; two tympani, or eardrums; and two eyes, each of which has
three lids. The third lid, called the nictitating membrane, is transparent.
Inside the mouth are two internal nares, or openings into the nostrils; two
vomerine teeth in the middle of the roof of the mouth; and two maxillary
teeth at the sides of the mouth. Also inside the mouth behind the tongue is
the pharynx, or throat.

In the pharynx, there are several openings: one into the esophagus, the
tube into which food is swallowed; one into the glottis, through which air
enters the larynx, or voice box; and two into the Eustachian tubes, which
connect the pharynx to the ear. The digestive system consists of the organs
of the digestive tract, or food tube, and the digestive glands. From the
esophagus, swallowed food moves into the stomach and then into the
small intestine. Bile is a digestive juice made by the liver and stored in
the gallbladder. Bile flows into a tube called the common bile duct, into
which pancreatic juice, a digestive juice from the pancreas, also flows. The
contents of the common bile duct flow into the small intestine, where most
of the digestion and absorption of food into the bloodstream takes place.

Indigestible materials pass through the large intestine and then into the
cloaca, the common exit chamber of the digestive, excretory, and
reproductive systems. The respiratory system consists of the nostrils and
the larynx, which opens into two lungs, hollow sacs with thin walls. The
walls of the lungs are filled with capillaries, which are microscopic blood
vessels through which materials pass into and out of the blood. The
circulatory system consists of the heart, blood vessels, and blood. The
heart has two receiving chambers, or atria, and one sending chamber, or
ventricle. Blood is carried to the heart in vessels called veins. Veins from
different parts of the body enter the right and left atria. Blood from both
atria goes into the ventricle and then is pumped into the arteries, which are
blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart.

The urinary system consists of the frog’s kidneys, ureters, bladder, and
cloaca. The kidneys are organs that excrete urine. Connected to each
kidney is a ureter, a tube through which urine passes into the urinary
bladder, a sac that stores urine until it passes out of the body through the
cloaca. The organs of the male reproductive system are the testes, sperm
ducts, and cloaca. Those of the female system are the ovaries,
oviducts, uteri, and cloaca. The testes produce sperm, or male sex cells,
which move through sperm ducts, tubes that carry sperm into the cloaca,
from which the sperm move outside the body. The ovaries produce eggs, or
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female sex cells, which move through oviducts into the uteri, then through
the cloaca outside the body.

The central nervous system of the frog consists of the brain, which is
enclosed in the skull, and the spinal cord, which is enclosed in the
backbone. Nerves branch out from the spinal cord. The frog’s skeletal
and muscular systems consist of its framework of bones and joints, to
which nearly all the voluntary muscles of the body are attached. Voluntary
muscles, which are those over which the frog has control, occur in pairs of
flexors and extensors. When a flexor of a leg or other body part contracts,
that part is bent. When the extensor of that body part contracts, the part
straightens.

Objectives:
• Describe the appearance of various organs found in the frog.
• Name the organs that make up various systems of the frog.

Purpose:
In this lab, you will dissect a frog in order to observe the external and
internal structures of frog anatomy.

Materials:
• safety goggles, gloves, and a lab apron
• forceps
• preserved frog
• dissecting pins (6–10)
• dissecting tray and paper towels
• plastic storage bag and twist tie
• scissors
• marking pen
• dissecting needle
See figure 1 in the appendix
Procedure:
1. Put on safety goggles, gloves, and a lab apron.
2. Place a frog on a dissection tray on its belly. To determine the frog’s
sex, look at the hand digits, or fingers, on its forelegs. A male frog
usually has thick pads on its "thumbs," which is one external
difference between the sexes, as shown in the diagram below. Male
frogs are also usually smaller than female frogs. Observe several frogs
to see the difference between males and females.
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3. Use the diagram below to locate and identify the external features of
the head. Find the mouth, external nares, tympani, eyes, and
nictitating membranes.

4. Turn the frog on its back and pin down the legs. Cut the hinges of the
mouth and open it as wide as possible. Find the opening at the back of
the throat called the glottis. This is the start of the esophagus. Use
the diagram below to locate and identify the structures inside the
mouth. Use a probe to help find each part: the vomerine teeth, the
maxillary teeth, the internal nares, the tongue, the openings to the
Eustachian tubes, the esophagus, the pharynx, and the slit-like
glottis. Obtain answers for questions 1 to 3 in the appendix.

5. Turn the frog onto its back and pin it down as shown below. Put the
pins at an angle so they will be out of the way during the dissection.
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6. Use forceps to lift the skin of the lower abdomen a point X. Snip this
skin with the scissors.
7. Use scissors to cut along the center of the body up to the lip to the lip.
Turn back the skin, cut toward the side at each leg, and pin the skin
flat. The diagram below shows how to make these cuts (if they won’t
pin down, you may cut them off).

8. For the next several steps, refer to the figure below. As you complete
the steps make sure to properly label this diagram and include it in
your lab.

9. Lift and cut through the muscles and breast bone (soft bone between
front legs) to open up the body cavity. There should still be a thin
membrane layer covering the internal organs. Repeat the above
procedure to remove it. Do not cut into the organs! If your frog is
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a female, the abdominal cavity may be filled with dark-colored eggs.
If so, remove the eggs on one side so you can see the organs
underlying them.
10. Use probes to move some of the internal organs around to find
the lower end of the esophagus. This tube connects the mouth to the
stomach.
11. For the next several steps, refer to Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the
appendix.
12. The stomach is a fairly large organ and slightly J-shaped. The
small intestine starts at the bottom of the stomach. The wider, a
bottom portion, of the digestive tract is the large intestine and
rectum. The opening at the back of the frog that allows sperms, eggs
and waste products out is called the cloaca.
13. Answer questions 4 & 5 in the appendix.
14. The liver is the large organ almost under the bone between the
front legs and is under the heart.
15. Find the gall bladder by lifting the left section of the liver. It is
the small sac attached to the middle section of the liver.
16. The pancreas may be hard to find. Look for a flat yellowish
organ attached near where the stomach joins the small intestine.
17. Answer questions 6&7 in the appendix.
18. Remove the stomach and examine its contents.
19. Answer questions 8&9 in the appendix.
20. Remove the small intestine and answer questions 10 to 12 in the
appendix.
21. Cut open the large intestine and answer question 13 in the
appendix.
22. Lift the liver gently and use a probe to find the heart and the
great veins and arteries connecting the heart to the lungs.
23. Try to find the trachea that connects the lungs to the mouth.
24. Locate the kidneys (dark red lobed organs) lying along the back
of either side of the spine.
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25. Find the small twisting tube leading from the kidneys to the cloaca.
This is the ureter. Note: Do not confuse the ureter with the oviducts in

a female. If it is an immature female you will see two lobed grayish

26. Locate the yellow, finger-like fat bodies attached above the
kidneys.
27. Remove the kidneys and look for threadlike spinal nerves that
extend from the spinal cord. Dissect a thigh, and trace one nerve into
a leg muscle. Note the size and texture of the leg muscles.
28. Answer the remaining questions in the appendix.
29. Dispose of your materials according to the directions from your
teacher and clean up your work area and wash your hands before
leaving the lab.
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Appendix

Figure 1
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Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4
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Questions
1. Where is the tongue attached?

2. Measure the length of the tongue.

3. How does this arrangement help a frog to catch its food?

4. Measure the length of the large intestine.

5. What is the function of an enzyme?

6. How many lobes does the liver have?

7. What fluid is stored in the gall bladder and what’s its purpose?

8. Make a biological drawing of what you find in the stomach.

9. Examine the inner lining of the stomach and describe its appearance.

10. Measure the length of the small intestine.

11. What does the inner surface of the intestine look like (may want to include a
drawing)?

12. What is the name given to the special structures that cover the intestine’s
surface?

13. Examine the contents of the large intestine to determine what material the
frog could not digest and suggest what kinds of things the frog had eaten.

14. Human and frog digestive systems are very similar. Use the diagram below to
compare the two systems.
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15. A frog doesn’t chew its food. What do the positions of its teeth suggest about
how the frog uses them?

16. From the diagram in 14, you can see a human’s large intestine is proportionally
much longer than a frog’s is. What is the role of the large intestine and why would
a frog’s large intestine be shorter?

17. You may have observed grass in frog’s large intestine and rectum. Does this
mean the frog eats grass? Explain.

18. Describe 3 ways in which an adult frog can obtain oxygen. Which method do
you think can supply oxygen the fastest?

19. Describe some ways in which a frog is well adapted to its environment.
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