Section 1 Overview:

We start the section by considering the osteology and arthrology of the skeleton. Let’s figure out the bone foundation first of all and then we can add the muscles. After a lab on osteology/arthrology we look at these features in the context of imaging, with a lab dedicated to the carnivore imaging anatomy of the skeletal structures.  We then move into the muscles, starting with those attaching the limb to the side of the body (extrinsic muscles) and then moving onto the thoracic limb proper, to study the intrinsic muscles by regions and muscle action groups.  We daily compare the anatomy dissected in our carnivore species to what is found in our ungulate species (prosected by instructors). We also have a dedicated ungulate thoracic limb imaging anatomy lab and an ungulate limb anatomy highlights lab where dissection of equine limb specimens will be undertaken.  The equine limb dissection allows us to focus on the all important joints, tendons and ligaments of the distal limbs that are regularly evaluated in lameness examinations. At the conclusion, a review lab is scheduled to revisit content and clarify understanding, with the instruction team present.

To summarise, the Thoracic Limb section consists of 8 labs, of which 2 are for imaging anatomy and the last is a review lab.

How to use this guide

To facilitate efficient dissection progress, the lab guide is generally organized into carnivore dissection sections, with ungulate comparative anatomy at the end of each section. Appendices contain helpful details to support greater understanding.  A terms list concludes labs and/or a section of material, and these lists may serve as a study guide. For quick reference, the Resource Summary page includes links to all review videos.

Pay close attention to clinical relevance information in magenta text boxes to help connect the lab content to what is discussed in lecture. Content in blue text boxes contains dissection instructions, while content in green text boxes indicates observation required only and states the structures that should be identified following successful dissection.

Where relevant, dissection instructions are followed with dissection images. These images may be clicked to enlarge, and Pressbooks will return to the place in the guide via using the back button. If images are not referenced in the guide, you may assume that they were produced by the NCSU Anatomy Team and labeled for internal use.  All other figure captions have a superscript indicating their source reference.