Animal Vertebrae Identification (Identification of vertebrae anatomy of animal)
Welcome again. Hope you are fine. In this article, I will discuss the vertebra anatomy of animals (large animal vertebrae and small animal vertebrae). I hope you have completed the previous article – identification of osteological features of skull bone of ox (skull of ox anatomy); If you missed that, go through this link.
In this article, I will complete cervical vertebrae anatomy, lumbar vertebrae anatomy, thoracic vertebra anatomy, sacral vertebrae anatomy, and coccygeal vertebra anatomy of animals (cow vertebrae anatomy; horse vertebrae anatomy). I will also complete the anatomy of the rib and sternum of an animal. Okay, let’s start learning and identifying the important osteological features from vertebrae anatomy.
List of vertebrae (types of vertebrae)
First, you should know the types of vertebrae of an animal. It has been divided into five regions according to the position and shape of vertebrae in animal vertebrae column –
- Cervical vertebra
- Thoracic vertebra
- Lumbar vertebra
- Sacral vertebra
- Coccygeal vertebra
“You should know what vertebrae column is. It is a series of vertebrae which articulate together and form a long column along the long axix of the body (along axial skeleton)”.
I will also complete the osteological features of the rib and sternum (anatomy of rib and sternum).
Okay, let’s start to learn and identify.
Hope you have a better idea of the typical vertebrae anatomy of animals (typical vertebra). If you don’t have one, you may get a basic idea of a typical animal vertebra from here.
A typical vertebra has the following structures –
- Body
- Arch and
- Processes
The body is a solid cylindrical rod-shaped structure, and we need to identify the following structures from the body of a typical vertebra –
- Cranial end (convex portion)
- Caudal end (concave portion)
- Dorsal surface of the body with neural ring
- Ventral spine (ventrally of the body)
“For identification those structures, I am going to present a one thoracic vertebrae and one lumbar vertebra.”
The arch consists of a pedicle and lamina. Here, we need to identify the followings structures –
- Pedicle of the arch (wall of the neural ring; two lateral aspects)
- Lamina (roof of the neural ring)
Intervertebral foramen with a notch at the pedicle (anterior and posterior portion of the pedicle of two succeeding vertebrae)
There are three processes in a typical vertebra – spinous process (single, projected dorsally), transverse process (projected laterally from two lateral aspects of the neural ring), and articular process (at cranial and caudal portion).
Cervical vertebrae anatomy
Most animal species have seven cervical vertebrae – first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. The first, second, sixth, and seventh cervical vertebrae are atypical, and the rests are typical vertebrae. So, first, we should learn and identify those atypical cervical vertebrae anatomy than the typical cervical vertebrae. Okay, let’s start to identify the first cervical (atlas), second cervical (axis), sixth, and seventh cervical vertebrae.
From the first cervical vertebrae anatomy, we will identify the following structures –
- Dorsal spine (dorsally, rudiment)
- Ventral spine (ventrally)
- Wing
Intervertebral foramen (laterally) and alar foramen (medially) in depression located on the dorsal surface of the wing
- Fossa Atlantis (at the ventral surface of the wing)
Articular facets on the cranial end (articulate with the occipital condyle of a skull) and caudal end (articulates with the odontoid process of axis)
Fovea dentist (depression at caudal portion of a neural ring; articulates with the odontoid process of axis)
From the second cervical vertebrae anatomy, we will identify the followings structures –
- Odontoid process (cranially projected portion)
- Intervertebral foramen
- Foramen transversarium (present only in cervical vertebra)
- Caudal articular surface (backward)
- Spinous process (thick; projected dorsally)
- Transverse process (undivided; backwardly directed)
- Caudal end of atlas (concave caudal portion)
From the sixth cervical vertebrae anatomy, we will identify the followings structures –
- Spinous process (projected dorsally; cranially directed)
- Cranial and caudal articular process (well-developed)
- Transverse process (not divided; quadrilateral plate-like appearance)
- Foramen transversarium
- Cranial end (convex) and caudal end (concave) of a vertebral body
From the seventh cervical vertebrae anatomy, we will identify the followings structures –
- Spinous process (flat; well-developed)
- Cranial articular and caudal articular processes
- Transverse process (divided into two portions)
- Cranial and caudal end (caudal end bears two facets for ribs)
Now, we need to complete the typical cervical vertebrae anatomy. In typical vertebrae (third, fourth, fifth), we need to identify the followings structures –
- Spinous process (short, cranially directed)
- Articular process (cranial and caudal)
- Transverse process (divided into two parts – dorsal and ventral parts)
- Foramen transversarium (at the base of the transverse process)
Thoracic vertebrae anatomy
From the thoracic vertebrae anatomy, we need to identify the following osteological features –
- Spinous process (long, caudally directed; cranial portion thin; caudal portion thick)
- Mammaillary process in spinous process
- Articular process – cranial and caudal (in facets form)
- Transverse process (short; single; thick)
- Articular facets (2) for ribs (cranial and caudal)
- Cranial end and caudal end
- Neural ring
“Special osteological features to identify thoracic vertebrae –presence of long spinous process.”
Lumbar vertebrae anatomy
From the lumbar vertebrae anatomy, we need to identify the following osteological features –
- Spinous process (short; quadrilateral plate form)
- Articular process – cranial (curved inward) and caudal (convex; pointed)
- Transverse process (long; plate-like; cranially directed)
- Neural ring
- The cranial and caudal end of the body of lumbar vertebrae
“Special osteological features to identify lumbar vertebrae – the presence of long cranially directed plate-like transverse process.”
Sacral vertebrae anatomy
From the sacral vertebrae anatomy, we need to identify the following osteological features –
- Body of the sacral vertebrae
- Wing of the sacrum (laterally; plate-like structure)
- Cranial articular process (cranially; curved inside)
- Median sacral crest (dorsally; spinous process are fused to form median sacral crest in cattle, sheep, goat)
- Lateral sacral crest (two; laterally)
- Dorsal sacral foramen
- Ventral sacral foramen
- Medial longitudinal groove (ventrally)
- Transverse groove (ventrally)
- Caudal articular process
Coccygeal vertebrae anatomy
From the coccygeal vertebrae anatomy, we need to identify the following osteological features –
- Rod-shaped body with neural ring (not in all coccygeal vertebrae)
- Medial longitudinal groove (ventrally)
“You need to know the numbers of vertebrae in different region of different species.”
Anatomy of rib and sternum of animal
Generally, there are two types of ribs in the animal body –
Sternal ribs or true ribs (directly connect sternum by own costal cartilage)
Asternal ribs or false ribs (indirectly connect with sternum by costal cartilage)
Now, we should identify the different parts of a rib –
- Head of a rib
- Neck of rib
- Tubercle
- Cranial border (thick; concave) and caudal border (thin; convex)
- Costal groove (caudo- medially)
“If you want to learn more about the anatomy of rib and sternum of animal, you should follow the class lecture or books.”
Anatomy of the sternum of animal
The sternum is a long cartilaginous long plate composed of seven sternal segments called sternebrae. For the anatomy of the sternum of an animal, we need to identify the followings structures –
- Manubrium (first sternebrae; cranially; compressed laterally)
- Facets for costal cartilage
- Xiphoid cartilage (seven sternebrae; caudal extremity)
Conclusion
I hope you have an idea of animals’ vertebra anatomy (large animal vertebrae and small animal vertebrae). I hope you will be able to identify vertebra anatomy from different animals (animal vertebrae identification; cow vertebrae anatomy; horse vertebrae anatomy; get help from a picture of vertebrae). If you want to learn basic anatomy from the DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF ANIMAL BODY, please visit this link and start to learn your desired organ system.
“If possible, I will update or enrich the information on this topic in future.”
If there is any mistake in the above information or if you have any suggestions for me, please, let me know in the comment box. Thank you so much.