Reproductive System Overview:
The reproductive system is responsible for developing offspring. Offspring start developing when male semen meets up with a female's egg. In males, semen comes from the testes and in females the eggs come from the ovaries and travel to the uterus through the Fallopian tubes. Our cat is a female and the ovaries are located deep in the body from a ventral view. In a female cat, the reproductive system compared to that of a human is different. In cats, the eggs travel straight down a canal to the Uterus, which is proportionally smaller than the Uterus in humans. Also, in humans, the Fallopian tubes are curled, where in the cat they are not. Although, the structures and functions of the reproductive systems are mostly identical.
Labeled:
1: Ovary; Hold and fabricate eggs
2: Infundibulum; Find and catch the oocyte
3: Fallopian/Uterine Tube(s); transport oocyte to uterus
4: Uterine Horn(s); In litter bearing species, the uterine horns are responsible for holding fetuses
5: Body of Uterus site of fertilization, holds fetuses
6: Vagina; Canal for fully developed fetuses to exit
2: Infundibulum; Find and catch the oocyte
3: Fallopian/Uterine Tube(s); transport oocyte to uterus
4: Uterine Horn(s); In litter bearing species, the uterine horns are responsible for holding fetuses
5: Body of Uterus site of fertilization, holds fetuses
6: Vagina; Canal for fully developed fetuses to exit
What We Learned
Dissecting the Reproductive System was intriguing to us because of how different it is from the human reproductive system, mostly because the cat is a litter bearing species. There are many differences in the reproductive system between that of a female cat and a female human that we did not know before: Cats do not ovulate in a timed schedule while humans do, the uterine horns in a cat are different from the uterine horns of a human because they are needed to hold multiple fetuses. Also, the shape of the reproductive tract in a cat is in the shape of a Y while the reproductive tract in a human is shaped more like a T. The reproductive system in a cat is much different than that of a human, and observing this was very interesting to both of us.