Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it's not hard  - you can dissect a fish right at home using an inexpensive specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class

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In today’s dissection, we’ll be looking at a perch. Perch are members of the phylum Chordata. There are many things that make perch interesting: they are bony fishes which make them “true” fishes, they live in both freshwater and saltwater, and their diets change based on how big they are.

Materials:

• Mammal Organs Dissection Kit
• Dissection tools

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Observe the external anatomy of your perch. See if you can locate the following:

1. Head
2. Trunk
3. Tail
4. Fins
   1. Caudal fin
   2. Posterior dorsal fin
   3. Anterior dorsal fin
   4. Pectoral fin
   5. Pelvic fin
   6. Anal fin
5. Operculum
6. Eye
7. Nostril
8. Mandible
9. Maxilla
10. Anus
11. Lateral line

Open the trunk of the fish following incisions 1-4 in the guidebook and locate the following:

1. Gills
2. Stomach
3. Swim bladder
4. Kidney
5. Gonad
6. Intestine
7. Liver
8. Pyloric caeca
9. Spleen
10. Gallbladder
11. Heart

Open the skull of the fish and locate the following:

1. Skull
2. Fatty tissue
3. Cerebrum
4. Cerebellum
5. Olfactory bulbs

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Click here to go to part 20:Dissecting a Starfish