This is what they made me do in bio class! I had to disect a poor helpless squid! I say we rise up against the education system and BAN SQUID DISECTION!a! ... actually I volunteered! I wanted to be "Steve O'Shea" for a day! (Don't we all) Anyway, disecting the squid was totally fun, and I was consoled knowing that the squid were already dead!

That first pic looks really grumpy, still I guess that's no big surprise given the jar and the being dead thing...

Cool project! Yes, that first picture is quite amusing...

GPO87,

Now you have dissected one of these beasties, I think you should label that third picture for us pointing out the internal features.

Oh go on, you know you want to.

Phil

:grin: WEEELLL...

It's obvious that the mantle cavity is the big open area (Which is really slimy... but fun to poke) And the silvery blotch is the ink sac... gills beside the ink sac, kinda whitish. Eyes... obvious... arms... obvious... suckers... REALLY OBVIOUS... beak... as Tako would say "not in a TV freindly place" As for the other stuff... intestines, reproductive organs, etc. My squid was a guy!:mrgreen:

I thought that the first picture was funny too, hence why I posted it...

*sigh* Yeah, sometimes dissection blows. The problem is that, it is a good teaching tool for the understanding of organisms, including human beings. I know a lot of med students who work on cadavers, and they say the same thing.

The thing is that dissection is only helpful when backed up by good lesson plans and a good instructor. Since I know nothing of your school, I can't say anything about that.

I sympathize with you, however.

John

After the first 100 squid dissections you get kinda used to it....then you get enthusiastic......then you get obssessed.............where am I on this spectrum...............I'll let you guess! Shouldn't be too hard!!!:grin:

J

After the first 100 squid dissections you get kinda used to it....then you get enthusiastic......then you get obssessed.............where am I on this spectrum...............I'll let you guess! Shouldn't be too hard!!!:grin: J
:lol:

Uh oh then, I think I started at the "excited" stage on dissection #1! What does that mean for #100 and greater? Or does that just make me callous? Either way it works for me! :grin:

Great pictures, and I agree with everyone previous that the first picture is quite funny. I sure wish I had done squid dissection in my school!

Cheers!

:lol:

Uh oh then, I think I started at the "excited" stage on dissection #1! What does that mean for #100 and greater? Or does that just make me callous? Either way it works for me! :grin:

Great pictures, and I agree with everyone previous that the first picture is quite funny. I sure wish I had done squid dissection in my school!

Cheers!

Oh yes but my first squid dissection was a large, VERY VERY VERY stinky spent female Moroteuthis ingens well over 600mm dml and it oozed through my fingers leaving a kind of ammonia/deadfish scented slime on my hands.........not exciting............but incredibly interesting..........exciting came later when I recovered from the fumes!!!!!

J

:bugout: WOW I have so much to look forward to! I can't wait for my next disection!:wink:

Is it just me or does the first pic look like the head of an acolyte of Cthulhu?

I thought that he looked like a ceph version of Marvin the Robot. I can just picture him saying "*sigh*, this jar is such an inconvenience."

I thought that he looked like a ceph version of Marvin the Robot. I can just picture him saying "*sigh*, this jar is such an inconvenience."

:roflmao:

J

d

i disected a pig once... got halfway done on the first class and the next day i went to finish and it had run away... no where to be found... i think that the janitor ate it maybe.


really....
it happened...
seriously...

So did you find the statolith? :D

So did you find the statolith? :D

In the pig........? :shock: :grin: :lol:

Well did you GPO? They can be hard to spot as they are very small and white on white!

J

So Jean where exactly do you look for it? I understand it is in the "cartilaginous skull" - is this behind the mouth area? And after you find the skull part, do you just go through slice by slice?

The way I do it is to go in from the ventral side, you reflect back the funnel then feel for a ridge in the cartilage that runs transversely across the head (at least in Nototodarus and Mortoteuthis) that is about the level where the statocyst chamber is. Then I cut across this ridge two thirds of the way through. This should cut through the chamber. The statoliths are visible (on either side, depending on exactly where you cut!) as small opaque white calcareous inclusions. In the squid I've worked with they are about a millimetre in length!

Good hunting!

J

:lol: can't say that I found it... sorry :)

I've heard about these statolith thingies, but what are they and what do they do?

I've heard about these statolith thingies, but what are they and what do they do?

Statoliths are small calcareous secretions in the head of a squid (called otoliths in fish) sometimes called "ear bones". Essentially they are to aid in balance, position in water etc. They behave a little like our inner ear. They have also been called accelerometers and gravimeters!
j

Congratulations GPO on your first squid dissection, may you have many more! Did you get to find the branchial hearts???

yeah, I'm pretty sure I found those, although they were amidst alot of other stuff.