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8th Grade Cow Eye Dissection

How to Reach the Tapetum Lucidium in a Cow's Eye

In order to reach the tapetum in a cow's eye, the first thing we did is to cut off all the surrounding fat on the eye. Once all the fat was removed and only the eye is left, the next thing we did was cut through the cornea. In order to cut the cornea, we made an incision where the cornea met the sclera until the aqueous humor was released from the eye. Then we cut out the cornea, being careful not to cut the lens. After the cornea was removed, we were able to take out the iris and the vitreous humor along with the lens escaped from the eye. We found the vitreous humor to be a clear jelly like substance that kept the shape of the eye. The lens was a miniature magnifying glass that was convex and an oval sphere. When we placed the lens on print, it magnified the size of the print. After we removed the vitreous humor, we made slits on the sides of the sclera and were finally able to turn the eye inside out. When we turned the eye inside out, the thin tissue at the back of the eye, the retina, appeared. Behind the retina, we found the illuminated aqua tinted membrane layer called the tapetum.

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