Standard Anatomical Position
Because animals can change orientation with respect to their environment, and because appendages (arms, legs, tentacles, etc.) can change position with respect to the main body, it is important that positional descriptive terms refer to the organism when it is in its standard anatomical position.
Thus, all descriptions are with respect to the organism in its standard anatomical position, even when the organism in question has appendages in another position. For example, see Fig. 9, where the tentacles are curved, and therefore not in anatomical position. However, a straight position is assumed when describing the proximo-distal axis. This helps avoid confusion in terminology when referring to the same organism in different postures.
Read more about this topic: Anatomical Terms Of Location
Famous quotes containing the words standard and/or position:
“Liberty requires opportunity to make a living—a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives a man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“You do not become a “dissident” just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)