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 kidney 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.
In today’s dissection, we’ll be looking at a kidney. Kidneys are critical for removing toxic waste and regulating the levels of water, sugars, salts, and acids in the bodies of mammals. There are many things that make a kidney interesting, including its unique bean shape and the fact that it contains about a million microscopic structures called nephrons that are key in the blood filtration process.
Materials:
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- Observe the external anatomy of the kidney. See if you can locate the following:
- Cortex
- Renal artery
- Renal vein
- Ureter
- Cut the kidney in half longitudinally, as seen in figure 1 (incision 1). Look for the following in the cross section from incision 1:
- Cortex
- Medulla
- Pyramid
- Renal pelvis
- Cut the kidney in half again, as seen in figure 2 (incision 2). Look for the following, this time as a cross section from incision 2:
- Cortex
- Medulla
- Pyramid
- Renal pelvis
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