EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Toward the tail: for the pig, posterior is used; for humans, inferior is used (toward the feet). In either case, caudal may be used to mean toward the “tail end” of the animal.

Detailed explanation-2: -Posterior or dorsal-back (example, the shoulder blades are located on the posterior side of the body). Medial-toward the midline of the body (example, the middle toe is located at the medial side of the foot).

Detailed explanation-3: -On a human body, dorsal (i.e., posterior) refers to the back portion of the body, whereas ventral (i.e., anterior) refers to the front part of the body. The terms dorsal and ventral are also often used to describe the relative location of a body part.

Detailed explanation-4: -Rostral and caudal: In animals with linear nervous systems, the term rostral (from the Latin rostrum, meaning “beak") is synonymous with anterior and the term caudal (from the Latin cauda, meaning “tail") is synonymous with posterior.