---start--- reptile/amphibian 11/6/98 for the paper - look at some issue of reptile conservation, husbandry, nutrition, pharmacology, reproduction - something about reptiles and amphibians. he would prefer a 5 pp double spaced paper - NO MORE than 8 pp. don't pick a topic that is way too broad. Choose one that you can cover adequately. get familiar with the literature on reptiles and amphibians. there are several objectives here - first, you should learn something; second, he should learn something. third, you should be able to write for publication. Reptile Medicine and Surgery by Mader is quite good. The two volume set by Frye is also good. there is also a new AAHA publication - Essentials of Reptlies, a guide for practicioners; that's also good, cheap, not exhaustive or anything but ok. Be familiar with a general herpetology text as well. There are a number of them out there. sample paper topics: Common skin disorders of the boa constrictor; nutritional disorders of turtles and tortoises; diagnosis and treatment of dystocia in snakes, etc. It's ok to repeat someone else's topic. Dr. Pierce is here again to talk to us about anatomy and physiology The handout is very comprehensive. hmm. do I need to take any notes here? i guess i will sort of try to get the basics. but there is no test... there are >2500 spp of amphibs three orders: frogs and toads (no tails), salamanders (tails) and caecilians (segmented worm type things.) Amphibians can live underwater or on land. Respiratory surface must be thin, moist and well vascularized to allow O2 to diffuse. Amphibian skin is a respiratory surface. they also have lungs. amphibian skin, though, is very thin, and very sensitive to the environment. nat'l aquarium set up some new breeding chambers with fancy sprinkler system. they had poison dart frogs in there. they were using PVC pipe to bring water in. when they put it up they let water run through to flush it for a long time. within seconds of turning it on, frogs were trying desperately to get out. most of them died. they did tons of tests. there were toxins in the glue used to glue the joints of the PVC pipe. amphibian eggs have no shell. must be laid in water. external fertilization. so they are tied to water in this way - require moist skin, require laying eggs in water. amphibs have 3 chambered hearts. no scales, no toe-claws. there are in reptiles more than 6000 spp and 4 living orders. 300 spp in US and Canada. reptile skin is exquisitely designed to retain water in the body. reptiles have scales. Skin keeps water in. reptiles also have shelled, amniotic eggs. these two features free them from the dependence on aquatic systems that amphibians have. they can migrate into new niches where no amphibian could survive, such as a desert. toes of reptiles have claws. reptiles have lungs, no gills in adults. some turtles can exchange gas/respire/breathe via their cloaca, which is thin, moist, and well vascularized. that's one reason why some can stay underwater so long, in addition to low metabolic rate. three chambered heart -2 atria, one ventricle, like amphibs crocodilians have almost complete interventricular septum so almost 4 chambers internal fertilization, since eggs have shells. there is one of the orders is represented byone spp - the tuotera, on New Zealand only. they have many ancient skeletal features. they are well adapted to where they live. these are in order rhynochocephalia (snouthead). crocodilians - 25 spp of these, alligators, crocodiles, caymans. turtles are another ancient ancient order - were around when dinos were here. they are also very successful. turtles have personalities. most specialized/advanced reptiles are lizards and snakes. there are legless lizards that have eyelids that blink. snakes do not have eyelids and can't close their eyes when they sleep which they do, they do sleep but do not close eyes. the rest of the handout is just detail about aspects of physiology and anatomy of reptiles and amphibs. read it on your own. one interesting thing - for birds and mammals, each individual has a maximum size they can reach. not so for reptiles and amphibs!!! their bone development is different from ours. they can just keep growing. you need to know what they look like when normal. also, you need to know about proper handling of these animals. important to support and control head. if it has a mouth it will bite you. don't get your nose too close to its nose. if it is poisonous, make sure you know how to avoid being bitten...some giant snakes need 10-15 people to hold them correctly to avoid breaking their spines, which would just be really irresponsible of you. different forms of locomotion - how skeleton and muscles are adapted - also important. basic concepts apply to all animals. some things are present in reptiles, particularly - paravertebral lime sac or chalk sac. renal portal system. they do have livers, spleens, thymuses, etc. cells in blood are a bit different. tissues respond to insults in a certain range. livers respond to bacterial infection witha certain pattern, whether it is a frog or a person. livers respond to toxins in certain ways. you can see the patterns. ethics - you need to develop them. it is technically possible to remove poison glands from poisonous snakes. you need to decide if this is ethical. if you leave even a few cells in, it can regenerate, and make the toxin. dry bites (bites w/o poison) can inject a lot of bacteria anyway. if someone has a pet bobcat will you declaw it? now, you can do to a reptile or amphibian anything you can do to dog, cat, person but you need to know restraint techniques, and other stuff. you can radiograph a turtle, but to see what's inside through the shell you have to put it at certain angles. slides: slides were shown. amphibian and reptile livers can be brown, black, mottled. lots of melanocytes. very dark. that's normal. bright yellow fingerlike things in the body cavity are fat bodies. normal. chalk bodies - white stuff next to spine cholesterol deposits in eyes- causes blindness caecilian - turgid little animals [i'm not feeling well at all...] turtle rads turtle rads with eggs inside - should be all the same density and shape. when they get stuck, they get dense and lumpy - shell gland adds more and more shell the longer it sits there. there are ways to help her expel the egg. surgery is easier with bird, reptile; there are medical and physical ways to help. you really can't damage the uterus though if you break the egg b/c yolk peritonitis/ceolomitis is bad. many lizards have calcified areas in scales. sometimes you can't see through it at all. there is a special scale over the pineal gland that lets light through. weird. look for loss of muscle mass behind eyes, it will show up there after animal has been sick. masseter and temporalis will atrophy and you see that. tailbreak- reptiles and some salamanders can lose their tail, it just comes off like it's perforated :) it just falls right off. this seals right over, doesn't get infected, and they grow new tails. the mythology of this is that when a predator comes and you run away, the tail is what they grab, and if you lose it, you grow a new one. predator is happy, has a snack, you are happy, you get a new tail. new tail is never exactly like the old one but hey, it's a whole new tail. there's no limit to the number of new tails. toepads of chameleon - many flaps on them, helps them to walk on vertical surfaces - like suction cups. reptiles do have brains. they are just small. looks like the brain is the same size as an eye! maybe even a bit smaller.well developed olfactory lobe chameleon tongue length = body length. has a bone in the base. it flares wide at tip to suck onto the prey. i do not understand why we do not get our 10 minute breaks from this lecturer ever. what is the problem? does she not know about them? slide: color change on skin of iguana. this was the only sign of the disease that killed him. he had a problem with his colon - it was grossly distended, necrotic, abscessed. he had amebiasis. kids could have got this from the lizard... testicles from this lizard - they're black! kidneys are yellow. they should not be yellow, should be kidney color. there is starburst precipitate. this is renal gout. uric acid crystals. ---end---