Emerita Analoga

Last week in lab, we dissected the sand crab!!

At the center of the table we have a live crab and then we each have our own anesthetized crab to explore. I realized during this dissection how sad this is. The live one sits in the middle of the table and watches its friends while we cut into them and removed their organs. Then again, it doesn't have a brain. 

During our live observation, I realized it was swimming backwards with these paddle like appendages located by its hind end. They live on the beach where the waves break. They burrow backwards in the sand and release these long feather-like antennae used for filter feeding into the water during receding waves.

Not as exciting of a dissection, we cut a square in the carapace and removed certain organs to view certain systems and make our required drawings. Mine was female, all the orange stuff inside  are eggs.

At about three hours into the lab, the fire alarm went off. The class heads outside and eventually the fire department shows up. After about 20 minutes, it was determined a false alarm and we could go back inside. I was thinking maybe we would get to go home and the last drawing wouldn't be required. But Nope! We had to stay until we finished. 

Next week, we are dissecting a marine worm.

We had a midterm in exercise physiology so the professor decided to cancel lab for the week so I don't have any exciting exercise torture to share with you this week.