Text Book of Biology, Part 1: VertebrataWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science
Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Biology -- Textbooks
Section 15. Figure 7 shows the pelvic girdle and limb of the frog.
There is a femur (f.); tibia and fibula (t. and f.) are completely fused;
the proximal bones of the tarsus, the astragalus (as.), and calcaneum
(cal.) are elongated, there are five long digits, and in the calcar (c.) an
indication of a sixth. With considerable modifications of form, the
three leading constituents of the rabbit's pelvic girdle occur in
relatively identical positions. The greatly elongated ilium (il.)
articulates with the single (compare Rabbit) sacral vertebra (s.v. in
Figure 5). The ischium (is.) is relatively smaller than in the rabbit, and
the pubis (pu.) is a ventral wedge of unossified cartilage. The shape of
the pelvic girdle of the frog is a wide departure from that found among
related forms. In connection with the leaping habit, the ilia are greatly
elongated, and the pubes and ischia much reduced. Generally
throughout the air-frequenting vertebrata, we find the same
arrangement of these three bones, usually in the form of an inverted.
Y-- the ilium above, the ischium and pubis below, and the acetabulum
at the junction of the three.
Section 16. The uro-genital organs of the frog, and especially those
of the male, correspond with embryonic stages of the rabbit. In this
sex the testes (T., Sheet 13) lie in the body cavity, and are white
bodies usually dappled with black pigment. Vasa efferentia (v.e.) run
to the internal border of the anterior part of the kidney, which answers,
therefore, to the rabbit's epididymis. The hinder part of the kidney is
the predominant renal organ. There is a common uro-genital duct, into
which a seminal vesicle, which is especially large in early spring,
opens. This is the permanent condition of the frog. In the rabbit, for
urogenital duct, we have ureter and vas deferens; the testes and that
anterior part of the primitive kidney, the epididymis, shift back into the
scrotal sacs, and the ureters shift round the rectum and establish a
direct connection with the bladder, carrying the genital ducts looped
over them. The oviducts of the female do not fuse distally to form a
median vagina as they do in the rabbit. In front of the genital organ in
both sexes is a corpus adiposum (c.ad.), which acts as a fat store,
and is peculiar to the frogs and toads. The distal end of the oviduct of
the female is in the breeding season (early March) enormously
distended with ova, and the ovaries become then the mere vestiges of
their former selves. The distal end of the oviduct is, therefore, not
unfrequently styled the uterus. There is no penis in the male,
fertilisation of the ova occurring as they are squeezed out of the
female by the embracing fore limbs of the male. The male has a pad,
black in winter, shown in Figure 1, which is closely pressed against
the ventral surface of the female in copulation, and which serves as a
ready means of distinguishing the sex.
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