PREFACE "^ 



This manual is written for beginning students and pre- 

 supposes no previous work in dissection. It is not intended 

 as a treatise on the skate but rather as an introduction to 

 vertebrate anatomy for inexperienced students. It is im- 

 possible for the student of comparative anatomy to dissect 

 specimens in as much detail as the student of human 

 anatomy, but he should be so drilled in details as to be 

 capable of working out any vertebrate animal which is 

 employed in further study. It was with such an ideal in 

 mind that this manual was prepared. 



Numerous practical reasons may be cited in favor of the 

 dissection of the skate as the introductory study in a course 

 in vertebrate zoology. Students in most beginning courses 

 receive little or no training in the dissection of any verte- 

 brate animal. Experience with many classes in vertebrate 

 zoology at this College and at the University of Kansas 

 has shown that each student needs for his first study an 

 easily dissected adult animal. The skate, particularly Baja 

 erinacea Mitchill, fits this need in a surprisingly satis- 

 factory way. This skate when fully mature is only six- 

 teen to twenty inches in total length. It is therefore pos- 

 sible to provide the student with a mature specimen of a 

 size convenient for dissection, easy to care for and to work 

 with in the laboratory. 



The skate has a very generalized internal structure 

 which is in every way comparable to the shark. It is 



V 



