Anatomical plane
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An anatomical plane is a hypothetical plane used to transect the body, in order to describe the location of structures or the direction of movements.
In human anatomy and non-human anatomy, four principal planes are used: the median plane, sagittal plane, coronal plane, and transverse plane.
- The median plane or midsagittal plane passes through the middle of the body, dividing it into left and right halves.
- A parasagittal plane is any plane that runs parallel to the median plane, also dividing the body into left and right sections.
- The dorsal plane divides the body into dorsal (towards the backbone) and ventral (towards the belly) parts. In human anatomy coronal plane is preferred, or sometimes the frontal plane, and the description may reference splitting the body into front and back parts, but this phrasing is not as clear for animals with a horizontal spine like quadrupeds or fish.
- The transverse plane, also called the axial plane or horizontal plane, is perpendicular to the other two planes. In an animal with a vertical craniocaudal axis, like a human, this plane is parallel to the ground; in an animal with a horizontal craniocaudal axis, like a quadruped, the coronal plane divides the animal into anterior and posterior sections.