Don't Know Much About Anatomy.... Quiz

Answer: It rebuilds faster than it is destroyed

Gastric acids could digest the cells of the stomach's lining quite efficiently, but the stomach can rebuild them faster. An average adult rebuilds a new stomach lining every three days.

Answer: Fossa ovalis

The unborn child receives oxygen through its mother, so blood goes directly from the right to the left atrium through the foramen ovale, bypassing the lungs. After birth, this opening (the foramen ovale) closes, forming the fossa ovalis. This usually happens within three months but, in some rare cases, it never does and surgery is required to repair the hole.

The dictionary defines the vena cava as: 'Either of two large veins that draw blood from the upper body and from the lower body and empty in to the right atrium of the heart'.

The fossa cava does not exist.

Answer: The chin bone

"Mental" has nothing to do with the mind. It comes from the Latin "mentum" which means chin. A protuberance is usually a rounded part that sticks out from a surface.

Did anyone have a vision of the statue "The Thinker" by Rodin?

Answer: Andreas Vesalius

Vesalius (1514-1564), a Flemish professor of surgery and anatomy, was the author of the first illustrated book of anatomy.

In it, he debunked the mistakes made by the Greek Galen, errors that were due to the fact that dissection was forbidden at the time Galen was working.

Answer: Humans

This is due to the fact that humans can perspire and cool off. A cheetah, the fastest animal on earth, could never run a marathon in the heat of Africa.

Animals start panting and have to stop to catch their breath over a long distance.

Human hunters doggedly follow their prey until it is exhausted and has to stop.

Answer: Atlas

The vertebra is located where the worst neck injuries occur. This nickname derives from the association with Atlas, the mythical giant who held the world on his shoulders, because the vertebra is the base on which the globe (our head) rests.

If you have ever been rear ended in your car, and your neck hurt, you know exactly where atlas is.

Answer: Lymphatic

The spleen serves to recycle red blood cells and produce white blood cells that fight infection. These last cells are called lymphocytes.

The spleen has no critical importance because the body can survive without it.
In antiquity it was thought to be the seat of melancholy.

Answer: A blind spot

The light detected by the retina is sent to the brain through the optic nerve. The place where the optic nerve leaves the eye is where we have our blind spot. Since we have two eyes, this is not a serious problem. What one eye cannot see, the other can.

Answer: False

The right lung has three lobes and is shorter because of the liver which is placed high under the ribcage, but it is wider than the left.

The left lung has only two lobes and is smaller because of the space occupied by the heart.

Answer: The hip bone

The innominate literally means the bone without a name. Henry Gray, in his book "Gray's Anatomy", explains that it is "so called from bearing no resemblance to any known object."

Many bone names have Greek or Latin roots which bring to mind known objects, such as for instance, trapezoid.