Name_________________________________________________________ Date________ Period_______
Virtual Cat Dissection
To prepare you for the Cat Dissection we will be performing in class, you will be completing a Virtual Cat
Dissection. Using the link below, choose each section located on the left-hand side of the page: Intro, External
Features, Muscles, Vessels, Organs of the Thoracic Cavity, Organs of the Abdomen, and Reproductive,
Female. Within each section, read through the text, study the images, and answer the questions in this packet.
http://anatomycorner.com/main/virtual-cat-dissection/
Virtual Cat Dissection (Intro)
1. What is the first step for any dissection?
2. List the six steps outlined for the cat dissection.
VCD - External Features
1. How are the cats stored?
2. What must you wear when performing the cat dissection?
3. Why is there a sponge in the cat’s mouth?
4. Why was the skin left on the feet (and even pulled over the feet)?
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5. Why is there an incision in the cat’s throat?
VCD- Muscles
1. For the purpose of our basic anatomy class, which muscles will we be looking at?
2. What type of tissue holds the muscles together?
3. What is this tissue specifically called?
4. What does the tissue look like?
5. What does it also serve as?
6. What will you not need at this point?
7. What is the goal?
8. Where should you start? What will you do?
9. List the four muscles in the chest. Describe each.
10. What will you focus on next?
11. What are the two main muscles of the forearm?
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12. What makes it difficult to tell #11 apart?
13. How can you pull apart #11?
14. How many attachment points are found on each of #11?
15. Where is the biceps brachii located?
16. Where is the clavobrachialis located? What is it called in humans and why?
17. What muscle will you find in the neck? Why does it have that name?
18. What will you find in the lower forearm of the cat?
19. What are the three divisions of the trapesiuz muscle?
20. What is the lower part of the back extending over the abdomen?
21. What muscle covers the abdomen?
22. What does oblique mean in anatomy?
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23. What is the main front muscle of the leg?
24. What does the word “femoris” mean?
25. What is found on the back side of the leg?
26. What are the two muscles of #25?
27. What is the name of the thin muscle that covers the cat’s upper leg in knee?
28. What is the muscle of the groin?
29. What are the two main muscles of the lower leg?
30. By pulling away the sartorius, what can you see?
To view more Cat Muscle images, click here: http://anatomycorner.com/main/image-gallery/cat-muscles/
VCD - Vessels
1. What will take place here?
2. What will need to be opened?
3. What will you see?
4. What tools should you use?
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5. Once the heart is revealed, what can you identify?
6. What should you think of the vessels as?
7. Why are the cats injected with colored latex?
8. What will the arteries look like?
9. What will the veins look like?
10. List the main vessels that attach to the heart.
11. Pushing the heart to the side, what can you view?
12. If you follow the vena cava up from the heart, what does it branch into?
13. What does the brachiocephalic artery do?
14. How can you expose more vessels of the face and head?
15. Where is the aorta?
16. Where is the inferior vena cava?
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17. List the three branches of the inferior vena cava and what they attach to.
18. Where are the renal vessels?
19. What do the renal vessels connect the kidney to?
20. What is the job of the kidney?
21. The aorta and vena cava split into a “Y” into what? Where do find them?
To view more Cat Vessel images, click here: http://anatomycorner.com/main/image-gallery/cat-vessels/
VCD - Organs of Thoracic Cavity
1. How must the organs be viewed in this part of the dissection?
2. Which landmark should you become familiar with?
3. What is number #2?
4. What do you find in the thoracic cavity?
5. What do you find in the abdominal cavity?
6. What is the ringed tube in the throat area?
7. Why is #6 stiff and easy to find?
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8. What is slightly behind #6?
9. Describe #8.
10. What does #6 widen into?
11. What will you find on either side of the heart?
12. What does the esophagus connect to? Run parallel to?
13. What is below the diaphragm?
14. Describe #13.
15. What is embedded in #13?
VCD - Organs of the Abdomen
1. What covers all organs?
2. What is found just under the liver and posterior to the diaphragm?
3. What is the name of the valve at the top part of the stomach? What does it do?
4. What is the valve at the other part of the stomach? What does it do?
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5. What is the first part of the small intestine?
6. What is the next part of the small intestine?
7. What is the last part of the small intestine?
8. What does #7 connect to?
9. What are the intestines held together by?
10. What does #9 contain?
11. What is #10’s job?
12. What is the name of the pouch between the large and small intestine?
13. What valve regulates the passing of food here?
14. What is the path of the alimentary canal?
15. What are the associated structures in digestion?
16. What is the job of the spleen?
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17. Where will you find the kidneys? What do they look like?
18. What is the job of the kidneys?
19. What will you find in the lower part of the kidneys that sits next to the large intestine?
20. What is the last section of the large intestine? What does it do?
VCD - Reproductive, Female
1. What do female cats have instead of a uterus?
2. Where do the embryos develop? What does this allow for?
3. Where are the eggs produced for fertilization?
4. Which structure is comparable to the Fallopian Tubes of humans?
5. How will you know if your cat is pregnant?
For more Cat Dissection images, click here: http://anatomycorner.com/main/image-gallery/cat-dissection/
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