1. Body Directions and Planes
Unit 1
Body Directions and Planes

2. Anatomical position is always:
Upright
Facing forward
Arms extended
Palms foward

3. 4 key directions:
1. Dorsal: back side
2. Ventral: underside
3. Anterior: head end
4. Posterior: rear or tail end

4. How do the 4 main directions work if the organisms is a two legged human?

5. Some other “must know” directional terms include:
Cranial
Superior
Medial
lateral
proximal
distal
caudal

6. There are also 4 Key Planes of the body
frontal / coronal
transverse / cross
3. Sagittal
4. Median (mid-sagittal)

7. Let’s see if we can ID the sectional cut shown below

8. It’s a coronal section

9. How about this one?

10. This one shows a Sagittal Section

11. and this one??

12. This is a Transverse Section

13. Body Cavities