Today’s topic was the amphibians. For this, we looked more closely at a clawed frog (Xenopus).

At the beginning of the hour I was very skeptical as to whether I would “survive” the dissection this time after I found it very difficult last time.

This time we dissected in groups. There were only 4 frogs for each course because the ancient (around 20-year-old) female frogs who weren’t so healthy anymore were used. Actually, our frog probably even had cancer because a few of the organs were already completely black. That is not normal... so I didn’t have such a guilty conscience.

The dissection was a bit bloodier than with the fish in the last session. Our frog’s heart was even still beating. When it was taken out, you could watch out the cells died one after the other. Watching an infarction live was really interesting.

In all, I found this dissection session much more comfortable than the last few. It seems to me that over time I got used to seeing dead, gutted animals. Although I don’t want to say that I could do it myself.

The student assistants who did the dissections did a great job this session and explained everything really well. For me personally, the whole course could be structured with the dissections done in groups so that fewer animals have to be killed.

Adeline, 1st semester, Biology