Blog 13 What was most interesting about this week's dissections?

We finished dissecting the crayfish this week. The crayfish was a very weird experience because it was the first time using scissors to dissect instead of a scalpel. I would say the most annoying part of the entire dissection was the small, I think the specimen were already decomposing so the smell was just terrible and it made me very nauseous. However, the actual dissection itself was very interesting. The inside of the crayfish was very complex and filled with little tiny organs everywhere, the most interesting organ was probably the green gland because I had never seen one before. I wish we could have dissected the stomach to see the teeth, that would have been very interesting. I also didn't know that crayfish were also hermaphrodites just like the worm, so that they could reproduce more. By far though, the most interesting part was the fact that you told us that they thrive in the sewers, which just completely disgusted me. I've had crayfish before, and I thought it was pretty good, but I can never look at them the same now.

Blog#12 What surprised you from the worm's dissection?

The one thing that surprised me about the worm dissection was the fact that the worms had way more organs than I had initially thought there were. I also had no idea that the worm peed and produced mucous from it's skin, that part was a bit disgusting, because I am a bit of a germaphobe. I also did not expect the exterior skin to cut so easily. I was also very interested in the digestion process because all the worm eats is dirt. Apparently, worms also fertilize soil in a way somehow, which was also very interesting because of the fact that the mucous and urine is what fertilizes it. Another thing that i found was peculiar was the fact that the worm is a hermaphrodite. I never knew that worms had both male and female organs, nor did I even know how they mated. Being a hermaphrodite apparently increases birth rates and the general number of worms that can survive.