Master of Science in Anatomy

This is the major vein in the neck draining blood most importantly from inside the skull. The Latin jugulummeant “the throat, yoke or collar”. The ancient Greeks referred to this structure as the “sacrificial vein”, likely a reference to cutting the […]

The Latin word for “an opening, a gaping mouth”.  The diaphragm, the muscular partition that divides the chest from the abdomen, has three openings.  The aorta, esophagus and inferior vena cava each pass through a hiatus in the diaphragm.  You

The Achilles tendon attaches major calf muscles, the gastrocnemius and soleus, to the calcaneous (heel bone). Achilles was a famous Greek warrior whose mother was one of the immortals, but he was not. His mother sought to protect her son

A deep layer of the scalp is a close fitting, tough connective tissue “helmet” called the galea aponeurotica. In the ancient Roman army, common foot soldiers were issued a close fitting leather helmet called a “galea”.

There are two major categories of anatomical terms: those that are simply descriptive as to shape, size, color, function and eponyms, the practice of honoring those who discover or first describe a structure by applying their name to it (e.g.

The testis is the male generative organ, producing sperm cells and the male sex hormone, testosterone. Testis is a Latin word for “witness”, as in witnessing to one’s manhood. Did you know that the words testify, testimonial and testament share

The “sea horse” is a structure buried deep within each hemisphere of the brain. This term is more descriptive of the imagination of anatomists rather than its function. In a cross section of the cerebral hemisphere the hippocampus looks something