Zoology for the Everyday 'Forger

I've heard of eating nothing and holding raw meat to your mouth.

Frankly, I don't believe that mythbusters will infect themselves with tapeworms for ratings.

The story I heard from my HS biology teacher was that they used to give the person a big laxative to crap the thing out, then they'd give the person another one just to make sure. I'm not sure whether or not it's true.

Maybe the doctor could dress up like a sexy lady tapeworm to lure it out!
Bugs Bunny could pull it off no problem.

Bump--we need more

I thought the test would be last week, but it was yesterday instead.

Anyway, I've learned about sea stars, sea urchins, and amphibians.

Starting with:
Starfish!

First, let's start with some basic anatomy.
The bottom part of the starfish (the side usually pressed against the ocean floor) has the mouth. Starfish lay on their mouths.
The tops of their bodies may have an anus, but it's never functional.

Starfish don't have intestines, but they do have two stomachs.



Starfish don't have blood!
They have body fluids, yes. But they also have a really awesome circulation system that helps them move.

Starfish circulate water through their bodies to move. If you see the picture above, you'll notice a bright red dot on the starfish. That is the top of the starfish, the side away from the mouth.
The red dot covers the "madreporite" (or as I call it, the "mother of all pores"). It's a little bump on the starfishe's skin.
This little bump is actually a water pore.


Look at the orange tubes in the picture below:


You'll see the word "ring canal" on the left, and it points to an orange, ring-shaped tube.

Water comes in through the madreporite on top.
The water then flows through the ring canal, and from there it branches out into canals in the starfishe's arms (radial canals).

From there, it goes into the ampulla, which eventually leads to the tube feet (all the semi-clear tubes all over the bottom of the starfish):



If the starfish sends a lot of water into an ampulla, all the tube feet near it will move. If it sends little water to an ampulla, the tube feet won't move.
Basically, the starfish can control the movement of all their little tube feet without using muscles - instead, they use the water in their bodies.
Tube feet are useful for picking up food, and they're also good for sticking to surfaces (they can suction onto a surface like mini toilet plungers).


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Alright, enough about starfish. I could go on forever and ever, but I'd like to get to frogs.

In particular, I'd like to talk about froggie sex.

I'll start by saying that frogs don't actually have sex.
They do something called "amplexus."



The one on top is male.
The one on the bottom is, of course, female.
Notice her belly is absolutely bloated. This is because she's filled with eggs!
What the male does is get on top of her, wrap his arms completely around her, and squeeze her body until all the eggs come out.
Then, he'll cover the eggs with his sperm.

If you google amplexus, you'll find a lot of pictures of male froggies squeezing the eggs out of female froggies.


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Back to the starfish!

Here's what you see if you cut open a starfish's arm:



It's just some organs, a water canal in the middle, and some very, very, very thick skin!
I couldn't use scissors to cut a starfish open. I had to use a scalpel. Their skin is full of little spines and bone bits.

Their skeletal system isn't made of bones like ours. It's made of ossicles, which are tiny bones (like the ones in the human ear).

In sea urchins, ossicles are joined together into a ball shape. That's how the sea urchin keeps its round shape:



Some sea urchins have poisonous spikes.


And... that's it for now.

I will let Kari Byron find a temporary home for my worm!

When I was 7 or 8 years old, I caught a couple of frogs doing the amplexus thing. My mom had to laugh when she saw me trying to figure out why they wouldn't come apart.