You've got the poison, I've got the remedy
Monday 10 May 2010
The most obvious end-points are the "nose" and "tail" (see Fig. 2). Anatomically, the nose is referred to as the anterior end (Latin ante; before). In organisms like vertebrates, that have distinct heads, the anterior end is sometimes referred to as the rostral end (Latin rostrum; beak), the cranial end (Greek kranion; skull), or the cephalic end (Greek kephalē; head).[3][4][6] For reasons of broader applicability, especially in organisms without distinct heads (many invertebrates), "anterior" is usually preferred.[4][7][8]
The polar opposite to the anterior end is the posterior end (Latin post; after). Another term for posterior is caudal (Latin caudum; tail, though in humans this refers to the feet i.e. inferior rather than posterior)—a term which strictly applies only to vertebrates, and therefore less preferred, except in veterinary medicine where these terms are standard.[4][7][8][9]
By drawing a line connecting these two points, we define the anteroposterior axis (sometimes written antero-posterior). Caudal and Posterior (back end) are often used interchangeably. In veterinary medicine, caudo-cranial is preferred between head and tail, and rostro-caudal between nose and neck. Less-used synonyms would be rostrocaudal or cephalocaudal axes (see Table 1). For brevity, the term anteroposterior is often abbreviated to read AP (or A-P) axis. As well as defining the anteroposterior axis, the terms "anterior" and "posterior" also define relative positions along the axis. Thus, in the fish in Fig. 2, the gill openings are posterior relative to the eyes, but anterior to the tail.
You've got the poison,
I've got the remedy.
@02:10