A practical way to understand anatomical planes and directions in animals using vegetables

In this work we use vegetables in representation of the animal body for teaching anatomical planes and directions in veterinary medicine. Banana represents the head and trunk, and runner bean represents the extremities, due to the difference in the anatomical planes and directions in these regions in animals. Students first determined in the banana the location of head and tail, and then they delimited with a marker pen the three main planes of the body (mean longitudinal, sagital, transversal and horizontal) and cut with a knife. After that, they marked the anatomical directions resulting of each plane, i.e. tranversal plane: cranial and caudal portions, horizontal plane: dorsal and ventral portions, and mean longitudinal plane: medial and lateral. They did the same with the runner bean, determining first the location of the extremity related to the trunk. In veterinary anatomy is also very much used the terms axial and abaxial in reference to the distal part of the extremities in animals with several digits (i.e. bovine, swine and carnivores). In horse are used for the proximal sesamoid bones. For the students to understand these concepts, they put together two runner beans and marked the corresponding directions. Finally, they had to draw everything they did. This method is a three‐dimensional reinforcement of concepts that most of the time are difficult to understand in a two‐dimensional way. Grant Funding Source : n/a