Blue Mussel Dissection (Graphic?)
The last dissection I will present you (because we didn't do more than those) is the dissection of a blue mussel (Mytilus edulis). Have you ever wondered what's in one of those animals that one eats dozens of everytime you have them for dinner? Wonder no longer!
What can you see here?
The pinkish flesh at the top is the "coat" that has been lifted up. There are two parts to it, one on the left and one on the right. In this picture, the mussel is "looking" to the left and "lying" on its right side! The side where it opens is not the mouth but technically the stomach!
Lying on the coat, not really visible in this picture, are the gills. Embedded into the coat are the gonoducts (reproduction tract)
Right below the "coat", you can see two white, thick strings. Those are the muscles that control the byssus (not visible here but we will talk about this later). The flesh-colored thing that slightly hangs out of the mussel right under the muscles is the mussel's foot.
There is a lot more stuff you can't really distinguish well because of the bad picture, but it's mostly muscles or reproduction/digestion related. Delicious!
What you see here is, in fact, a female mussel! You can see that by the color of the coat, it's slightly pinkish. The male one is slightly lighter, pictured below:
Overall, the dissection here wasn't as good as the female, but you can see the foot (hanging out at the bottom) and the gills a lot better! What's also visible here are the byssus threads, that's the grass-like stuff on the byssus. A living mussel uses those to hold onto things.
While mussels make a great meal (I can't stomach any after doing the dissection), they also serve an important ecological purpose. They filter and clean water, which allows a greater variety of other animals to live in it. WIthout mussels, our water would be very, very dirty. Just imagine how many animals poop and pee in there on a daily basis!
Or ... no. Don't imagine that. Ew.
Of course, it's not just the blue mussel who filters liters over liters of water each day, every day, other clams do these too. But as the water temperature rises and heavy metals (and other toxic substances) accumulate in the oceans, mussels have similar problems to all other aquatic animals.
We need to remember that they're not just food but an integral part of our ecosystem.
Sorry, one more time, for the short post. I've been sick, still am a bit, and basically only exist between the lab and my bed. I hope you enjoyed this small piece of information about mussels anyway!
Pictures were taken by me, except for the first one ("Graphic Content Warning"), that was made by @steemitadventure
eeww that is so gross, I'm not eating them again lol Actually ive cut out almost all meat and am mostly vegan now anyways. I realize now the devastation we're causing the planet by eating animals.
You know what they remind me of? Yummy lol
That was not the message. The mussels we eat are usually specifically grown for it. They're not the problem ^^ The problem is general pollution, at least in the case of mussels.
Though mussels are doing an impressive job yet I can bet that they can't stop us, the humans from polluting the water. Soon there will be wars among different countries for clean water. Humans are the filthiest creature of the universe.
Great post @suesa. By the way, are you American or Japanese?
Neither. I'm German, as stated in my profile :)
Oh, didn't check it. My mistake.
I'm curious though, why Japanese?
They are the nature's filter for our waters. Studying nature and organisms that keeps a balance always makes for such an interesting adventure. Graphic? Heck no! It is interesting to learn such things. You have an exciting career, I bet there's never a boring day! Thanks for sharing.
I grew up eating tilapia and nile perch fish being the most common seafood here. I never knew about mussels being a meal.
I just love knowing what they do for our ecosystem regardless of them seeming so small. Thank you for the lesson as always :)
Get well soon 💚
Nature is truly amazing.
Should we say thanks to them? :)
P.S When I saw "warning graphic content" I thought it was going to be a battle royale between aliens.
I'm resteeming this. Please get well soon
There was a discussion about stopping the dissections in schools a while ago, my suggestion was documenting one in details and make copies for students to use, it's great to see someone is doing that.
you're providing for the masses, information they didn't have access to, if you can document it with greater detail, you would be saving numerous animals as well.
May I suggest more light while taking pictures and perhaps a tripod for your phone/camera for better quality?
It's not like I took the pictures with the goal to post them. I documented my dissection that I was required to do as part of my education, because I felt like it. Tuns out it's great steemit material.
There are many high quality videos about dissection but in my opinion, a biology (and medicine) student needs to do this at least once. Videos and pictures just don't provide the same amount of knowledge you get while taking the animal apart yourself.
well, I was thinking about the frog dissection happening in middle schools, or was it high schools?
well, idk, we don't do that in school in Germany
yes very precisely, keranga dalah types of animals that provide many benefits for human life. It works to filter out the dirt in the water. really, I can not imagine if the shells do not live in the water. like you say it. dirty and very disgusting @suesa
wow amazing thinking
loved your posting
I really like to eat shellfish in my area a lot of kind of shells ,, a very good post@suesa
Awesome post dear friend,,, thanks for your details explanation about those animal..