ABSTRACT
Illustrations of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus; Figure 7.1 ), California sea lion (Zalophus californianus; Figure 7.2 ), harbor seal (Phoca vitulina; Figure 7.3 ), and Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris; Figure 7.4 ) are used in the portion of this chapter on gross anatomy. These species were selected because of their availability and the knowledge base associated with them. 1 Gross anatomy of the sea otter (Enhydra lutra) is presented in Chapter 44 (Sea Otter Medicine). Illustrations of the (A) external features, (B) superficial skeletal muscles, (C) relatively superficial viscera with skeletal landmarks, (D) circulation, body cavities, and some deeper viscera, and (E) skeleton are presented as five separate “layers” on the same page for each of the four species. These illustrations, based on dissections by one of us (Rommel; SAR), are of intact carcasses and thus help show the relative positions of organs in the live animals. The major lymph nodes are illustrated, but to simplify the illustrations, we did not label most of them. The drawings represent size, shape, and position of organs in a healthy animal; the skeleton is accurately placed within the soft tissues and body outline. The scale of the drawings is the same for each species so that vertical lines can be used to compare features on all five; a photocopy onto a transparency will allow the reader to directly compare layers. Names of structures are labeled with three-letter abbreviations. 2 A brief figure legend helps the reader apply basic veterinary anatomical knowledge to the marine mammals illustrated. The style in Miller’s Anatomy of the Dog (Evans 1993) is followed as much as possible. Most technical terms follow the Illustrated Veterinary Anatomical Nomenclature by Schaller (1992).
