Dissection of a calanoid copepod скачать в хорошем качестве

Dissection of a calanoid copepod

Pictures of the result: https://imgur.com/a/UnJ773d This video shows a full dissection of a male calanoid copepod, starting with the 1st antennae (the ''scalp'') followed by the urosome (tail), the pair of 5th legs and all four swimming legs. I am using a 25g MVR knife mouted on a handle on my right hand to make the cuts and a 15g needle on my left hand to hold the specimen. Calanoids are some of the easier ones to dissect, especially the larger ones. With a bit of practice with this technique you can learn to dissect them very quickly with little risk of damaging the important structures. The principle is very simple: you hold the specimen on the dorsal side and you make straight cuts parallel to the thoracic segments. Manipulating the parts and finding the right angle to observe some of the structures is probably the hardest part, not the dissection itself. I find that many of them are easier to observe while the part is still attached to the specimen (side views of the 5th legs, for example). For structures of the antennae, looking at multiple specimens at once and cutting off the target section can help. Keeping the specimen flat on it's dorsal side can be tricky at times. You can spend some time before the dissection to flatten the abdomen like I'm doing in the first 20 seconds of the video. Note: the scale shown is not accurate.