Crayfish Dissection || Aw Snap!

Curious about crayfish anatomy? Learn how to dissect a crayfish in this video, which also covers its external and internal anatomy and physiology. In this simple dissection of a crayfish, you’ll learn various parts of the arthropod anatomy, why crayfish have holes in their hearts, and which group of animals dominates the earth.

Crayfish are a great way to learn about arthropod anatomy. Their characteristic hard exoskeleton and jointed appendages of arthropods is fascinating to learn! Also, did you know that crayfish have teeth in their stomach? In this video, you’ll learn general information about crayfish, which will be tied into its anatomical structures.

This dissection lab is for anyone who is curious about crayfish anatomy, wants to cover crayfish anatomy for a zoology course, missed the crayfish dissection during biology class, or just wondered, “Crayfish are tasty, but how do they work?”. The video will teach you how to dissect a crayfish step by step, and review the external and internal anatomy of the crayfish.

In this video, we’ll cover the following structures:

Jointed appendages Mandibles

Exoskeleton Gills

Tagmata Posterior and anterior gastric muscles

Cephalothorax Mandibular muscles

Abdomen Abdominal flexor and extensor muscles

Legs Intestine

Chelipeds Reproductive organs

Swimmerets Heart

Copulatory swimmerets Ostia

Mouth Digestive glands

Anus Cardiac and pyloric stomach

Tail Gastric mills

Uropods Nerve cord

Telson Brain

Antennae Antennal glands

Maxillipeds

If you want to learn more about crayfish anatomy, here’s a link to a website with more detailed information, as well as diagrams: https://altoona.psu.edu/academics/bac...

If you have any questions regarding crayfish anatomy, dissection methodology, or general biology, feel free to leave a comment. We'll try our best to reply.