Anatomy lab practical 1

On the first day of anatomy lab the professor told us that he was giving us all the answers to the test. That sounds easy--until you remember you have to match the right answer with the right question. The "answers" for our first lab practical coming up on Tuesday are found on 18 pages, each with a list of 20 or so anatomical items. Our job on this test is to be able to identify the type of tissue (as seen through a microscope) or the specific bone (a physical model) as well as certain details on each. An example is in order.

The humerus is the bone in the upper arm. It is fairly easy to identify because it has a ball on one end that isn't as completely chiseled as the ball on the femur. The challenge is to remember the 13 items we need to not only identify on the humerus but also spell correctly. Some are rather easy; the ball is called the head. (Sounds very scientific, doesn't it?) Some are more difficult; the indentation on the back side of the bone on the elbow end is called the olecranon fossa. Add to that the coronoid fossa and the radial fossa on the front and there are three indentations to keep straight. It's actually not that bad - as long as one remembers that the olecranon process on the ulna attaches to the olecranon fossa on the humerus forming the pointed elbow and the radius is on the outside of the arm (when the palm is facing up). The fossa (indentation) that is left is the coronoid fossa, not to be confused with the coracoid which is on the scapula.

So that is about half of one bone down. Only 44 more to go. And we haven't even got to figuring out a way to remember what all those holes in the underside of the skull are called. Would that be the optic canal or the superior orbital fissure? Is that the foramen rotundum, the foramen ovale, the foramen spinosum or the jugular foramen? I'll assume that everyone could identify the foramen magnum (the BIG hole) since that's where the spinal column passes.

Long story short, I have my work cut out for me between now and Tuesday morning at 8 am.