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Anatomy and Development

Author's note


The purpose of this website is to host various resources that I have developed to aid in understanding some of the topics related with the teaching of veterinary anatomy and embryology.

I chose the heading of "Anatomy and Development" for several reasons. On the one hand this title resembles to some extend the term of " Developmental Biology" which I think is much more appropriate to denominate what has traditionally been included under the term of "Embryology". On the other hand the word "development" has a sense of change that counterpoints the changelessness commonly associated with a sheer anatomical perspective.

For me it is not just either a semantic or etymological issue. Approaching the anatomy of living things from a developing point of view emphasizes some aspects that are frequently overlooked when we consider only a traditional anatomical frame. In this brief presentation I would like only to recall that the existence of living things is a cycle rather than an event. This argument challenges the human endeavour to create limits and definitions for everything. This also? emphasizes that birth is a circumstantial fact, basically causing a dramatic change in the environment in which living things are continuously developing. This idea not only blurs the boundary between Embryology and Anatomy but also recalls that life is a relative process in which the anatomy is always the output of conflicting processes of formation and destruction.

Furthermore, I am passionate about technological development and new e-learning resources. No doubt this is why I am especially involved and committed to the development of new didactic resources for teaching Anatomy and Embryology. The resources that I have gathered in this web site are at your disposal under the common creative license.

To wrap up this brief introduction, I would like to thank all the people and institutions that support my work.

I invite you to share with me any suggestion you have or error you might have found.


José García Monterde (
jg.monterde@uco.es)

Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Pathological Anatomy

Veterinary School. University of Cordoba. Spain