Starfish Dissection

Patrick

The starfish is found living on the seafloor of oceans, unlike their larvae, who swim in the water column. 

Starfish eat slow moving creature that reside on the seafloor such as mollusks, mussels, clams, oysters, and sand dollars. 

Their feet have tubes made out of simple squamous epithelial tissue which are perfect for gas exchange, allowing starfish to breathe.

Fun Fact: Starfishes have no brain or blood!

Perch Dissection

Perchibald 

Perch are most commonly found in freshwater bodies of water such as small ponds, lakes, streams, or rivers. 

They feed on smaller fish, shellfish, or insect larvae.

Perch have long, rounded bodies. On the anterior side of their head are the maxilla and lower mandible for the mouth, nostrils, and lidless eyes. On the posterior sides are the opercula that protect the gills and the lateral line system which is sensitive to vibrations in the water. They have paired pectoral and pelvic fins, and two dorsal fins.

Fun Fact: Perch lay their eggs in long, connected ribbons unlike any other fish!

Grasshopper Dissection

Gary

Grasshoppers live in dry, open, grasslands among low plants, but some species can be found in jungles and forests.

While grasshoppers may look like they are vicious hunters, because of their mandibles and legs that allow for high jumping, grasshoppers are strict herbivores. They feed on plant life, and can often destroy crop when feasting in large groups known as locusts.

Grasshoppers utilize tracheal breathing to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide between their tissues.

Fun fact: Grasshoppers existed long before dinosaurs! The ancestors of our modern day grasshoppers evolved well over 200 millions year ago, during the Triassic period, when the first reptiles appeared on Earth. The fossil record shows that primitive grasshoppers first appeared during the Carboniferous period, more than 300 million years ago. Most ancient grasshoppers are preserved as fossils, although grasshopper nymphs are occasionally found in amber.

Frog Dissection

Sigmund Frog

Frogs need to be close to a water source in order to produce. They are found on every continent except for Antarctica and in almost every environment.

Frogs are carnivores. Small to medium sized frogs consume insects such as flies and mosquitoes.

Frogs breathe through their skin through a process called cutaneous gas exchange, but they also have small lungs with which they can breathe.

Fun Fact:  A group of frogs is called an army!

Earthworm Dissection

Paul

Earthworms are found everywhere: parks, forests, rivers, and trees. More of them are found in moist, wet environments. They are usually found in burrowed deep in the dirt during the winter season and rise up the top of the soil once summer hits.

Earthworms eat leaves, animal fecal matter, dirt and dead grass as well, for it provides all the nutrients necessary for them.

Earthworms do not have lungs and thus they breathe through their skin; that’s why earthworms need to be an environment where their skin can be moist at all times. That is how they are able to breathe oxygen.

Fun Fact: Earthworms eat so much that they produce waste that is equal to their own weight every 24 hours!

Crayfish Dissection

Craig

Crayfish are found basically anywhere that contains water! This includes, streams, ponds, rivers, marshes, swamps, lakes, and drainage ditches.

They will eat anything from detritus found in their habitat to snails and shrimp and everything in between.

Crayfish breathe through feather-like gills.

Fun Fact: Crayfish have many nicknames, including crawfish, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, and mudbugs. Over 350 species of the 500 crayfish species of the world live in the United States!

Clam Dissection

Alexander Clamilton

Clams live in sand or sand-mud buried as deep as the length of their siphons. They are found in freshwater and marine habitats.

Clams eat plankton by pumping water through their bodies and filtering them through their gills.

Like fish, clams breathe through their gills. The gill hairs move across water so that water can circulate through the clam’s body via hind end of the clam. Gills can exchange the “watery matter” for oxygen and food through the rear end. Consequently, this is how clams eat too.

Fun Fact: There are over 15,000 different species of clams all over the world!

Gummy Bear Genetics: Just For Fun

By Amanda & Ananya feat. http://theresonlytwoofus.blogspot.com/

30 Pink: 10 White

Hypothesis: Since pink appears to be the dominant trait, having a pink:white, 3:1 ratio, the parents of these offspring must both be carriers for the recessive white.

Analysis: As previously stated, this group of offspring has a 3:1 ratio, exhibiting simple Mendelian dominance. In order to get this ratio, the crossed parents must be two heterozygous pink gummy bears (Pw x Pw).

The result of crossing these two parents is three pink gummy offspring (one homozygous and two heterozygous) and one homozygous white gummy offspring, or a 3:1 ratio. Thus proving that this litter of gummy bears follows simple Mendelian dominance.

15 Pink: 30 Pink-White: 16 White

Hypothesis: Here we have an interesting batch of offspring. ¼ of the offspring are pink, ¼ are white, and ½ are pink and white. This appears to be a 1:2:1 (pink: pink-white: white) ratio. The parents of these offspring most likely are carrying a gene for white and pink, and these genes can both be expressed simultaneously.

Analysis: Because approximately half of the offspring are showing both traits, it can be assumed that pigment trait is co-dominant. This means that heterozygous genotypes will code to show both pink and white, as opposed to complete dominance, where in heterozygous genotypes the more dominant gene surfaces.The parents for these offspring are infact carrying a gene for white and pink, as is shown below.

This also supports the hypothesis because the ratio of possible offspring here are also 1:2:1.

20 Pink: 18 White: 14 Green: 19 Pink-Green

Hypothesis: In this litter, there are 20 Pink, 18 White, 14 Green gummy bears and 19 Pink-Green gummy worms. Aside from the fact that gummy bears have found some way to birth gummy worms with humanoid faces on them, there’s definitely something funny going on here. This particular set of offspring is interesting in that four different phenotypes are exhibited. Since the offspring exhibits four different possible outcomes it is likely to believe that the mode of inheritance may be multiple alleles, similar to the mode of inheritance for blood types.

Analysis: Due to the evidence shown in this punnett square below, we can conclude that the mode of inheritance is multiple allele. All possible phenotypes are demonstrated in the genotypes of the potential offspring shown in the punnett square. There is also a 1:1:1:1 ratio demonstrated in the Punnett Square equivalent ratio for the phenotypes of the offspring, supporting the idea that the dominance for this set of gummy bear genes is multiple alleles.

38 White

Hypothesis: In this grouping, all 38 gummy bears were white. Since all of the offspring share a phenotype, we can conclude that the parents must be homozygous white. The entire litter would not be all white, since white has proven to be a recessive trait in every other litter thus far, unless both parents had a genotype of ww.

Analysis: The offspring have a ratio of 1, meaning all offspring are white. These offspring are displaying simple dominance. To yield theses results, the parents of this litter of bears must have been homozygous white (WW x WW).

By crossing these two bears we see that all the offspring will share a genotype and phenotype. (WW, white).

15 White: 15 Pink: 13 Orange

Hypothesis: In this grouping, there are 15 white gummy bears, 15  pink gummy bears, and 13 orange gummy bears. The ratio of the offspring is 1:1:1 (White:Pink:Orange). From these results we can assume the parents have a genotype of homozygous white and homozygous pink.

Analysis: The offspring have a ratio of 1:2:1, meaning the amount of orange offspring is double the amount of white and pink offspring. This litter is displaying incomplete dominance, in which the parents are heterozygous orange gummy bears (as displayed in the punnett square below, with PW = orange).

In this graph, we have compared the phenotype frequency for each gummy bear phenotype encountered in this experiment.