Recently in biology, we have been learning about anatomy and dissections. At first, we covered the internal and external organs of the animal that we would be dissecting. Mine was a squid. After learning about that, we read through the procedure, and then jumped into the dissection. I didn't have a partner, so I got to dissect my squid by myself. Some things that I noticed were that the stomach and intestines of the animal were combined, and there was no distinct placement of the stomach. The main arteries and veins had been dyed pink to be visible, and they went through all they organs and branched out everywhere, which I thought was very cool looking. My favorite part of the dissection was cutting out the beak of the squid. It was so strange to have all this cartilage and skin, and the only hard part was the beak, which looked exactly like a parrot beak.
Sea Cucumber Observation
Before my dissection, I observed a dissection of a sea cucumber. One thing that I learned was that sea cucumbers are actually a lot more complex than I had thought. From the outside, it looks like a lump with small frills on the end. On the inside though, there is many different parts to it, and internal organs that all connect to each other throughout the body. Another thing that I found out was that their bodies are quite hard. The skin around the inside is a tough muscle that is hard to cut into and hold back. My favorite part was when the dissector made the first cuts on the sea cucumber and held the flaps down with pins. It was really cool to watch, especially because I hadn't witnessed a dissection in years.