Exploring+Martin+the+Warrior

Meet Martin: the reincarnation of this noble mouse. Martin Jr. is a pig. A fetal pig, to be exact.

 Greetings, Martin.

Martin is happy to see you. Now let us explore that noble mouth of his.

The hard palate is located just behind the teeth, while the soft palate is closer to the throat. On the tongue are taste buds, used for tasting. The teeth are dull, suitable for eating leaves, grasses, and roots--staples of Martin's diet. Also pictured is Liana's hand, because Julia and Martin have yet to become acquainted.

Martin has two BIG toes and two SMALL toes on each of his wickle bickle feet. He uses digitigrade locomotion (so he walks on his tippy-toes) instead of plantigrade locomotion (like how we walk on the soles of our feet).

Martin is a guy. Don't worry. We checked. You can, too. Just look at his scrotal sacs. Also shown are Martin's nipples (mammary papillae), his anus, and his urogenital opening. Martin does not have genital papilla, which are found excusively in females.

Martin's rectum leads from the large intestine to the anus, where waste is excreted. Also shown are his kidneys.

For Phase Dos, we cut along Martin's umbilical cord, making his umbilical arteries (which bring blood to the placenta) visible. That means that it probably works both ways, and Martin gets nutrients from his mommy's placenta through the umbilical arteries and excretes waste back to her through one large umbilical vein.

Here's Martin! His diaphragm (which stretches behind the rib cage--that we cut through--allows respiration to occur). Each of his lungs has two lobes. Also shown are Martin's thoracic and abdominal cavities, in which Martin's liver, thymus glands, heart, and small intestine are also labeled.

The cut-up small intestine. Note the little projections: the villi!

EGAD! THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM! Martin's mouth (shown in pictures above) and digestive organs help him absorb nutrients from his food (and then eliminate waste/poo).

Martin's liver produces bile - which digests fats. The bile is stored in the gallbladder, being held by Liana, above.

The larynx and trachea, which alow Martin to breathe and make noise, are also in the throat and lead to the lungs. However, food does not go here (unless Martin is choking, which we aim to avoid).

In the back of his throat, Martin's food moves down through the esophagus to his stomach. The esophagus is covered by the epiglottis.

The pancreas of Martin makes "pancreatic juice", an all-purpose digestive juice that breaks down many types of molecules. Additionally, the pancreas produces insulin and glucogon. The stomach is an organ that digests food mechanically and chemically - with hydrochloric acid, as well as strong muscular contractions that churn the food up.

A NOTE! Martin's spleen, a finger-like projection off the stomach, was difficult to locate and we currently do not possess a picture of it. Stay tuned!

We then traversed Martin's CIRCULATORY SYSTEM! The pericardial sac is a double layer of tissue that surrounds the heart and roots of major vessels.

Oxygen poor blood enters from the body into the right atrium. It is then pumped into the right ventricle, and then to the lungs. After picking up oxygen in the lungs, the blood travels to the left atrium, and then to the left ventricle, which pumps the blood into the body. (Note the relative sizes of the chambers - the left ventricle is the strongest muscle, as it has to pump blood the farthest, all the way throughout the body.) The coronary artery supplies blood and oxygen to the heart. The coronary sulcus is a groove that separates the two ventricles.

The superior and inferior vena cava carry deoxygenated blood to the right atrium of the heart from the body. The pulmonary artery transports deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs. The aorta carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle to the body.

Since Martin is a fetal pig (FETAL!) his Ductus Arteriousus is large and visible. After birth, the ductus shrinks, as it is no longer needed - the first breath a baby takes closes the ductus and opens the lungs.

Martin's ureter transports urine (waste) from the kidneys to the urinary bladder, where it is stored until ready to be discharged through the urethra. Since Martin is a male, the urethra goes down through the end of his penis, which would be on the other side of the flap of skin shown below. Martin's two kidneys filter his blood, removing wastes (urea!), excess water, and toxins. Oxygenated blood flows into the kidneys from the heart through the descending aorta, then through the renal artery, to the kidneys. The deoxygenated blood leaves the kidneys through the renal vein, and then through the inferior vena cava which returns it to the heart. The three layers within a kidney, shown here, are the renal cortex, renal medula, and renal pelvis. Ths renal cortex is the outermost, lightest-colored layer. The renal medula is the middle, darker layer that looks scrunched up and pointing inwards. The smooth renal pelvis, the area of the kidney that leads to the ureter (the ureter was where the chopped off lump on the right side of the kidney is), is indicated by the probe.