Quiz this week over the cat thoracic and abdominal blood vessels and nerves, as well as a written portion over that day's material.
We're getting back to the shark again,
so we'll be catching up with the eye muscles that you may have skipped in Week 5.
Remember to clip as close to the surface of the eyeball as you can, to keep
the muscles intact in the eye socket.
You will be asked to trace the flow of substances that move through the body (bile, sperm, ova), so be sure you can trace the pathways. Remember that bile is produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder.
The mudpuppy and shark digestive system should look familiar to you if you've seen the cat (but remember that you can't tell where the shark esophagus ends and the stomach begins until you've opened it up and seen the internal structures). The urogenital system is arranged differently than in the cat; note for instance the shark kidneys that lie in a pale ribbon along the dorsal length of the body cavity, and notice that the mudpuppy condition is similar.
Any time you're asked to identify shark internal reproductive structures, look first for the claspers (or absence of them) on the anal fins. This will tell you the sex of the animal without doubt, and after that the answer should be a giveaway.
Likewise, female mudpuppies will be easy to tell at a glance - look for the bright-orange egg masses inside the abdominal cavity.
Nothing directly to do with the course ... this section will have an occasionally-changing recommendation for books of general scientific interest - guided by the whimsy of the web-site maintainer, of course. :) This week's pick is:
Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould
(An examination of the Burgess Shale fauna, a collection of creatures who formed
a complex ecosystem as long ago as the "primitive" Cambrian Era. Most of them left no
descendents. If one were to run the clock back and play it again, we might see a very
different world around us today....)
