We were very excited to have the opportunity to dissect rabbits today! We first had to tan the rabbit, meaning to remove the skin from the body of the rabbit. We did this by making a shallow incision along the skin using scissors and using a probe to remove the connective tissue that was connecting the skin to the body of the rabbit. We thought that this was the most interesting and surprising part of the dissection today as we were able to see how taxidermists remove the skin from animals and we realized that it was a relatively easy process to carry out with the proper tools.
After tanning the rabbit and removing most of the skin, we were able to completely see all of the muscular structures of the rabbit. We then made careful incisions in the thoracic region of the rabbit, cutting along the sternum and exposing the heart and lungs. We were able to locate and count the lobes of the lungs as well as find the aorta of the heart. We then made careful incisions making our way to the head of the rabbit. Along the neck, we were able to locate the trachea as well as the esophagus below the trachea. Another surprising part of the dissection was finding how thin and flexible the esophagus was as all of us thought it was a more pronounced and structural component. From this, we were able to see how and why food sometimes gets “stuck” in our esophagus and how it feels like it is hard to breath because of the pressure on the trachea from the esophagus. The most difficult part of today’s dissection was trying not to cut too deep into the internal organs and muscle of the rabbit. When making our first incisions into the sternum area of the rabbit, we started making more shallow incisions, ensuring that we weren’t puncturing any of the organs. We then gradually made deeper incisions, eventually exposing the thoracic area of the rabbit.
