Re: About the angle of view

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

<<Do not forget that this is replaced, in Baumel et al. terminology and  I 
think standard veterinary terminology, by cranial and caudal.
Anterior and posterior are based mostly on human anatomy, e.g.    upright  
mammals, so what follows for humans does not follow for    most vertebrates. 
Hence, cranial and caudal replace anterior and  posterior.>>


<Matthew, please pardon the nitpicking.  This terminology can be quite 
confusing. In humans anterior and posterior would be the equivalent of 
ventral and dorsal, respectively.  Towards the belly-button would be 
ventrally (or anteriorly), towards the spine would be dorsally (or 
posteriorly).  If you ever get a chest x-ray, on the order sheet you may see 
the abbreviation:  "CXR, PA and LAT."  This means the ordering physican 
wants two chest x-rays, a posterior-anterior view and a lateral view. 
Cranial and caudal refer to the head (superior) and tail (inferior) regions 
of the torso, respectively. --Ken Clay, M.D.>

I think you misunderstood my post.  What you said is why some non-human 
vertebrate terminologies favor the abandonment of anterior and posterior; 
humans are strange mammals in their upright stance and old terminology is 
based on human anatomy.  What is ventral for most vertebrates can be, as you 
said above, anterior in humans and so on.  To use the same terms for upright 
humans (and apes) and everything else is misleading.

Matt Troutman
m_troutman@hotmail.com
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