Name__________________________________
LAB
Dissecting a Chicken Leg
Please write all of your answers on the answer sheet in complete sentences.
Procedure:
1. Put on gloves.
2. Thoroughly rinse and dry one chicken leg. Place it in the dissecting tray.
3. Examine the outside skin tissue. Then, using scissors and forceps, begin to cut the skin and
peel it away from the muscle below. Notice the clear connective tissue that holds the skin to
the muscles. As you peel off the skin, you may need to cut away some of this connective
tissue. Work slowly and carefully with scissors and forceps until all skin is removed.
4. Describe what the connective tissue looks like under the dissecting scope. You may use
pictures to help describe it. Put this information on your answer sheet.
5. Using the dissecting scope, observe the yellowish clumps of fat tissue found outside the
skin. On the answer sheet, describe the fat.
6. Observe, with your naked eye bundles of pale, pink muscle tissue surrounding the bones.
With your naked eye, do you see just one muscle, or are there many muscles present? How
can you tell?
7. Use a probe if needed to find the tendons of the chicken leg: shiny, white tissue at the end
of muscles. Tendons connect muscle to bone.
On the answer sheet, sketch and label a picture of the tendon connected to the bone.
Describe how it feels.
8.
Remove a single muscle by cutting the tendons and peeling the muscle away from the
bone.
9. Remove all remaining muscle to expose the bones of the chicken leg.
10. Ligaments connect bone to bone and can be found where two bones come together. Find
any ligaments. If there is a thigh attached, cut the ligaments at the joint between the upper
and lower leg. Examine how the bones fit into each other.
11. Dispose of the chicken leg as directed. Wash your tools, dry, and put away. Disinfect the
countertop and wash your hands.
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Questions:
1. What type of tissue (general and specific) makes up the "meat" of a chicken?
2. Describe the fat you saw on the chicken leg. What sort of tissue is this?
3.
Describe what the connective tissue looks like under the dissecting scope. What are the
common characteristics of connective tissue?
4. What function is performed by ligaments?
5. What is the function of a tendon?
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6. Sketch and label a picture of the tendon connected to the bone. Describe how it feels.
7. What is the function of the cartilage found at a joint? What type of joint is represented in
the leg?
8. Describe the texture of the ends of the bones at the joint. (This is where cartilage is found).
What occurs when the cartilage at your joints wears away?
9. What is the soft material inside a bone? What sorts of cells are present here?
10. What was interesting to you about this lab?
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