Tyrenlds
New Member
*EDIT: Photobucket reduced the resolution of these photos during upload. If you'd like a set of the high res. photos, plus more not posted here I've got a .ZIP file I can e-mail you. Just post a request or e-mail me at [email protected]
*EDIT
Have had a clutch incubating for about 8 months now. We got curious, wondering if we had been storing 50+ infertile eggs for more than half a year, so we opened one up. Unfortunately this guy was alive, and remained so through out these pictures. Just want to say for the record, we feel really bad for the loss. That being said, this was really fascinating! I'll go into the dissection process;
Using a knife I removed a section of egg from the side, imagine cutting the pointy end off a foot ball. Once the albumin fluid had drained, the chorion slowly slid out of the shell. The chorion was carefully peeled back and the yolk sac removed, revealing the amnion encased embryo. the amnion was like a thin clear inner shell. really interesting. Once punctured the amniotic fluid drained out and the amnion shell was removed. What remained was a living chameleon embryo.
As you can see it's very far along, nails, scales, and eyelids are clearly developed. The eyes moved a bit, but the lids never opened... maybe because he could see through them already? Once separated from the amnion he began to breathe. Big breathes at first then settled into a normal pattern. The heart was clearly beating. Most of his skin was more like a fish than a chameleon's. We used warm water to hydrate him during this whole thing... poor guy.
And that's about it for now. Any questions are welcome.
higher resolution photos here: http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/tyrenlds/
*EDIT
Have had a clutch incubating for about 8 months now. We got curious, wondering if we had been storing 50+ infertile eggs for more than half a year, so we opened one up. Unfortunately this guy was alive, and remained so through out these pictures. Just want to say for the record, we feel really bad for the loss. That being said, this was really fascinating! I'll go into the dissection process;
Using a knife I removed a section of egg from the side, imagine cutting the pointy end off a foot ball. Once the albumin fluid had drained, the chorion slowly slid out of the shell. The chorion was carefully peeled back and the yolk sac removed, revealing the amnion encased embryo. the amnion was like a thin clear inner shell. really interesting. Once punctured the amniotic fluid drained out and the amnion shell was removed. What remained was a living chameleon embryo.
As you can see it's very far along, nails, scales, and eyelids are clearly developed. The eyes moved a bit, but the lids never opened... maybe because he could see through them already? Once separated from the amnion he began to breathe. Big breathes at first then settled into a normal pattern. The heart was clearly beating. Most of his skin was more like a fish than a chameleon's. We used warm water to hydrate him during this whole thing... poor guy.
And that's about it for now. Any questions are welcome.
higher resolution photos here: http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/tyrenlds/
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