SNAIL HEART (Part 2)


          

 (ABOVE) 
Enlarged view of heart in juvenile snail

Wait for animation to load. Then, count the number of complete heartbeats during the 6 sec interval. Convert to units of beats per minute.


from video by T. Sheffield
 

    


  (ABOVE) 
Juvenile pond snail 
[albino strain of Helisoma trivolvis]

Estimate body size using scale bar. 
Location of heart is shown by black box.
Substage lighting used to view heartbeats.
 

 Analysis of heart rate in relation to body size:
  1) Plot heart rate (in beats/min) versus body size (in mm) for snails of three different sizes:
       (a) see > newly hatched   (b) juvenile (see above)   (c) see > adult
   
  2) Is your plot linear? Describe and explain the relationship.
  
  3) Compare your data to previously collected data in Helisoma, as seen here > Data sets
 
  4)  Compare snail heart rates to those of other invertebrates.