FROG DISSECTION

GROUP NAMES: ______________________________________

Materials:
Dissecting pins, forceps, scissors, paper towel, dissecting probe, preserved frog, dissection tray.

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

SEXING YOUR FROG:

Place a frog on a dissection tray. 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.

Is your frog male or female? Explain:

PROCEDURE AND OBSERVATIONS: EXTERNAL ANATOMY

1. Place the frog on its belly (ventral side) in the dissecting pan
2. Examine the hind legs and front legs of the frog. The hind legs are strong and muscular and
are used for jumping and swimming. The forelegs provide balance and cushion the frog when it
lands after jumping. Notice the difference between the toes of the hind legs and those of the

front legs. How many toes are on the front legs_______________. How many are on the hind

legs__________________________. Label the hind and front legs on Figure 1.

3. Locate the large, bulging eyes. The frog has 3 eyelids. The 2 outer ones are the color of the
fog's body. They do not move. Locate the third eyelid. It is a transparent membrane the protects
the eye while permitting the frog to see under water. It is call a NICTITATING
MEMBRANE. Label the eye and the nictitating membrane on Figure 1.
4. Behind each eye find the circular eardrum called a TYMPANUM. They locate the two
openings into the nasal cavity. The nasal openings, are also call EXTERNAL NARES, found
toward the tip of the snout will closes when the frog is under water. Label the mouth,
tympanum, and the external nares on Figure 1.
5. Feel the frog's skin. It is smooth, moist and thin. The frog can breathe directly through its
skin as well as with its lungs. Turn the frog onto its ventral side and notice the color difference.

Why does each sides color help protect the frog from predators?

Coloration acts as camouflage

Figure 1. External Anatomy of the Frog:

INTERNAL MOUTH STRUCTURES:

6. Place the frog on its dorsal side in the dissecting pan and cut the corners of the mouth.
CAUTION: Be careful when using scissors.
7. Locate the TONGUE. Is it attached to the front or the back of the mouth?
_____________Front__________________________________________________________In
a live frog, the tongue is sticky and is used to catch insects. Pull on the tongue. Notice that it is
still flexible.
8. Feel the inside of the upper jaw ( maxilla) and the lower jaw (mandible). The teeth you feel
are the MAXILLARY TEETH. Locate the 2 VOMERINE TEETH on the upper jaw. They
are located toward the front of the upper jaw and between the internal nares (internal nostril
openings).
What are the maxillary teeth and vomerine teeth used for?

To hold onto prey

9. Push carefully on the eyes observe how they fill a space in the mouth. The eyes help hold the
prey as a frog is swallowing it.
10. Locate a vertical opening toward the back of the mouth. This is the GLOTTIS. It is the
opening to the trachea (windpipe) that leads to the lungs.
11. Find the GULLET (throat) it leads to the opening of the esophagus. On both sides of the
gullet, near the cut jaws are opening to the EUSTACHIAN TUBES. Use your probe.

Where does the eustachian tube lead?

To the tympanic memebrane

What is its purpose?

Equalize pressure of the inner ear

LOCATE and label THE FOLLOWING on Figure 2.
1. Vomarine Teeth: Used for holding prey
2. Internal Nares (nostrils) breathing
3. Eustachian Tubes: equalize pressure in inner ear
4. Glottis : Tube leading to the lungs
5. Gullet: Opening leading to the esophagus
6.Tongue: Front attached, aids in grabbing prey
7. Tympanic Membrane: eardrum, located behind eyes
8. Nictitating Membrane: clear eyelid, protects the eye
9. Maxillary Teeth: Used for holding prey
10. Eye: vision

Figure 2:

DISSECTING THE FROG:

1. Place the frog on its dorsal side and secure it in place with dissecting pins through each of the
legs.
2. With your scissors make a cut (through the skin only) along the midline of the belly from the
pelvis to the throat.
3. Now make transverse cuts through the skin below each of the fore limbs and above each of
the hind legs. If needed you may pin the skin back. Notice the blood vessels under the skin.

Why are there so many blood vessels?

Closed- circulation, double-looped circulation, allows blood to reach all parts of the frog’s
body

4. Notice the abdominal muscles. Now cut through the muscle layer and repeat the incisions you
mad in step 2 and 3. BE CAREFUL NOT TO CUT TO DEEP AND DAMAGE THE
UNDERLYING ORGANS.
5. You will have to cut through the sternum (breastbone). Open and re-pin the frog.
6. If your frog is female, the body cavity maybe full of black eggs. You may have to remove one
side in order to continue your dissection.
INTERNAL ANATOMY:
The digestive system consists of the organs of the digestive tract and the digestive glands.
Swallowed food moves from the mouth down the esophagus and into the stomach and then into
the small intestine. Bile is a digestive juice made by the liver and stored in the gall bladder.
Bile flows into a tube called the bile duct. Digestive enzymes from the pancreas flows into this
duct. Both bile and pancreatic enzymes flow into the small intestine. Most digestion and
absorption of food into the bloodstream takes place in the small intestine. Indigestible materials
pass through the large intestine and then into the cloaca, the common exit chamber of the
digestive, excretory, and reproductive systems.

1. Stomach: First site of

chemical digestion,
breaks down food
2. Liver: Makes bile
(aids in digestion)
3. Gall bladder: Stores
bile
4. Esophagus: Tube that
leads to the stomach
5. Pancreas: Makes
insulin (aids in
digestion)
6.Small Intestine
(duodenum and ileum):
absorb nutrients from
food
7. Mesentery: Holds
coils of the small
intestine together
8. Large Intestine:
Collects waste, absorbs
water
9. Spleen: Part of circulatory system, stores blood
10. Cloaca: Where sperm, eggs, urine, and feces exit.
11. Artery; take blood away from the heart
12. Vein: take blood toward the heart
13. left atrium pumps blood into the ventricle
14. Right atrium pumps blood into the ventricle
15. Lung: organ for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange

1. Locate and label the largest organ in the abdominal cavity it is the reddish brown LIVER.
How many lobes does the liver have? 3

2. Locate the greenish sac attached to the liver. This is the GALL BLADDER. What is stored
in the gall bladder? What does bile digest? Bile, helps digest food!
3. Beneath and to the right of the liver is a j shaped STOMACH. With your scissors open the J
of the stomach to observe what the frog may have eaten. Was there anything in the stomach?
What do you think the frog ate?

4. The stomach attaches to the small intestine. The straight part of the small intestine is called
the DUODENUM and the coiled section is the ILEUM. The coils of the ileum are connected by
thin transparent membranes with blood vessels. This tissue is called the MESENTERY.
Mesentery helps keep your intestine from knotting up. After cutting the small intestine away
from the large intestine, measure how long your small intestine is in cm and inches.

____________________cm. _______________________ inches.

Name the two sections of the small intestine:

1. Duodenum

2. Ileum

5. The small intestine widens to form the LARGE INTESTINE. The large intestine is a straight
tube leading to the anus. The lower portion of the large intestine is called the cloaca. Waste,
urine and sex cells are expelled here.
6. In the mesentery along the inner curve of the stomach locate the pinkish PANCREAS. In the
mesentery find a reddish spherical structure call the spleen. The spleen filters out worn out red
blood cells and platelets from the blood.

7. The respiratory system consists of the nostrils, trachea and bronchi which opens into two
lungs. Locate the LUNGS, 2 reddish brown saclike structures.
8. The circulatory system consists of the heart, blood vessels, and blood. The heart has two
receiving chambers, or ATRIA (singular: atrium), 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 heart is located
between the lungs. Compare the thickness of the atria and the ventricle.

Why is the ventricle so much thicker than the atria?

Thicket because it needs to pump blood through the entire body

LABEL ( Place the letter next to its corresponding body part):
1. LIVER
2. GALL BLADDER
3. STOMACH
4. SMALL INTESTINE (ileum, duodenum) two letters
5. CLOACA
6. MESENTERY draw in label
7. PANCREAS
8. LARGE INTESTINE
9. SPLEEN draw in label
10. HEART b,g,i
11.LEFT ATRIUM,
12. RIGHT ATRIUM,
13. VENTRICLE
14. ESOPHAGUS
15.LUNG
16. ARTERY
Kidneys: Filter Blood
Ureters: Carry urine from kidneys to bladder
Testes: Make sperm
Oviducts: eggs travel through these
Ovary: makes egg (usually not visible on frog)
Urinary Bladder: Stores Urine
Cloaca: Where sperm, eggs, urine, and feces exit.
**The reproductive system and urinary system collectively is call the urogenital system.
9. The urinary system consists of the FROG’S KIDNEYS, URETERS, URINARY
BLADDER, AND CLOACA The kidneys are organs that filter wastes from the blood and
excrete urine. Connected to each kidney is a ureter, a tube through which urine passes into the
urinary bladder. The urinary bladder is a sac that stores urine until it passes out of the body
through the cloaca. LABEL THE KIDNEYS, URETERS AND URINARY BLADDER ON
FIGURE 3.
10. The reproductive system in the Female consists of OVARIES which produce egg and the
OVIDUCTS which carry eggs to the cloaca. In the male it consists of TESTIS which produce
sperm, sperm ducts which transport sperm to the cloaca. LABEL THE TESTIS, OVARY,
OVIDUCTS AND EGGS ON FIGURE 3.
11. Closely examine the kidneys notice there is a light colored band of tissue running through the
middle of each kidney. This tissue is the adrenal gland.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14.Fat bodies are orange/yellow in color and are stored food. LOCATE AND LABEL THE
FAT BODIES ON FIGURE 3.

LABEL THE male and female reproductive organ ON FIGURE 3.

1.kidney
2. urinary bladder
3. ureter
4. testis
5. ovary
6. oviducts
7. sperm ducts
8. fat bodies
9. cloaca

FIGURE 3:
Extra credit: Study and Removal of the Frog's Brain

Turn the frog dorsal side up. Cut away the skin and flesh on the head from the nose to the base of
the skull. Cut and scrape the top of the skull until the bone is thin and flexible. Be sure to scrape
AWAY from you. Insert the scissors horizontally just below the cranium and above the eyes
carefully chip away the roof of the skull to expose the brain. Cut away the heavier bone along
the sides of the brain. Carefully remove the thin, gray membrane covering the brain. Find the
nasal pits at the anterior end of the brain by the nostrils. The olfactory nerves leave these
structures and connect to the most anterior lobes of the brain, the olfactory lobes (A). Just
posterior to the olfactory lobes is the cerebrum (B), and it is the frog's thinking center. The
cerebrum helps the frog respond to its environment. Posterior to the cerebrum are the optic lobes
(C), which function in vision. The ridge just behind the optic lobes is the cerebellum (D), it is
used to coordinate the frog¹s muscles and maintain balance. Posterior to the cerebellum is the
medulla oblongata (E) this is the which connects the brain to the spinal cord (F).

To receive extra credit for exposing the brain you must first present a completed the data table
and have all the brain parts labeled then show the brain dissection to your teacher for approval.
The cleaner the dissection the better.
Complete the data table and label the brain:

Brain Part Function Letter

Cerebellum

Cerebrum

Olfactory Lobe

Optic Lobe

Medulla Oblongata
Post-Lab Questions:

1.) How does the liver aid in digestion?

Produces Bile, which digests food

2.) Name the three chambers of the frog’s heart:

 Left atrium
 Right atrium
 Ventricle

3.) Compared to the frog’s body, its lungs are quite small. Does the size of a frog’s lungs affect
its ability to take in oxygen? Explain your answer:

No, a frog takes in oxygen through the capillaries in the mouth lining and absorbs oxygen
through its thin, skin

4.) What is the purpose of the fat bodies? Why are these structures important to the frog?

They store excess food in the form of fat, which gives the frog energy during hibernation

They also aid in mating

5.) Give two reasons that might explain why the small intestine is so long

1. Allows a large surface area to digest food

2. Takes food a long time to travel through the length of the small intestine, giving enzymes
more time to digest food

6.) What roles do the kidneys play in excretion?

Collect Nitrogen wastes from the blood and produces urine

7.) Through which organ is the liquid waste eliminated from the frog?

Cloaca
8.) Describe the pathway an egg takes as it exits the body of the female frog

Ovaries, down the oviducts, into the cloaca, and out of the frog

9: Describe the pathway that sperm travel from the testes out of the frog

Testes, through the vasa efferentia, into the kidneys, down the ureters, into the cloaca, out
of the frog

10.) If you were asked to dissect a tadpole, what differences would you find from what you saw
in the adult frog?

-Small mouth, gills, two-chambered heart, no legs, tails

11.) Describe where and how a frog might live during the change from tadpole to adulthood?
Explain your reasoning

Near the water’s edge where air breathing would be the easiest as lungs developed, and
where emerging frogs could climb onto land

12.) Compare and Contrast fish and amphibian body structures: (Hint: It may be easier to make a
Venn Diagram: You can use the back of the lab if needed)

Similar characteristics:
- both are vertebrates , have protective coloration (camouflage), bony endoskeleton,
closed circulatory system, dorsal nerve chord, fertilize eggs externally,

Frogs Only
- three-chambered heart, two pairs of legs, external organs for hearing, lungs as
adults, undergo metamorphosis, live on both land and water, have smooth thin skin
(No scales)

Fish Only
- two-chambered heart, fins, no external organs for hearing, gills, do not undergo
metamorphosis, live only in water, have scales