Muscular System Web LinksHuman Anatomy

Lab Unit 2Saddleback College

Compiled by Dr. Jane Horlings

Muscle Sites; Mostly Cat Dissections

Charlie Harrison’s Human Anatomy Home Page (Saddleback College). Useful photographs of cat dissections, our models and more. Click on the muscle name for a photo with labels. Note: exact origins etc may be slightly less detailed than your instructor expects you to learn!

Tracey Magrann’s Saddleback College Human Anatomy Web Page. PowerPoints, study aids and more.

Muscular System. Great photos of cat musculature from Biology 129, Penn State.

Cat Muscles. From University of Cincinnati Clermont College. Nice links to even larger, more detailed, labeled photographs. Fankhauser’s home page has some very interesting links. This guy has quite a history and wide variety of interests!

Head and Trunk:

Lower Appendages:

Cat Images, from Illinois Valley Community College. I like these because of the good quality of the photos, and the nice labels/tables. Might make nice study sheets if you have the color ink to spare! There’s a short quiz/practical to take, as well.

Cat Muscles. From Tyler Junior College. Click on the image on the page, and you get close-ups of the muscles, labeled. Probably not the most detailed site, but perhaps useful when you’re learning the larger muscles.

Cat Anatomy Tutorial from Kenyon College, Gambier, OH. Click on Thoracic Muscles and Limb Muscles, then follow the directions.

Muscles of the Human Body. Click on the area, then click again to see a photo of a cadaver and the corresponding model (e.g. arm). Identify the muscles, then click to see the answers to test yourself.

Virtual Cat, from Delaware County Community College. Click on the Cat Box, then on Muscular System, then just keep clicking on what you want to study/see.

Muscular System. Virtual Cat Dissection Site. Also from Penn State, but not as nice as the Strauss site! Click on Superficial Muscles, the Deep Muscles. But they can’t spell “triceps”! 

Web Based Cat Dissection Review Tutorial. From McGraw-Hill and Penn State University. The Muscular Dissection Chapter is a free demo chapter from their Anatomy textbook (click on Muscular System on the left). It is very nicely done with much detail and information.

Muscular System of the Cat, Quizzing. Click on an entry on the list (not all of the ones at the top work), then see a picture of a cat dissection. Write down the correct answers to quiz yourself, then click to see the answers.

Innerbody.com. This has lots of information to look through, and the initial screen is a fun one that you can do mouseovers on body to see muscle names. Click on a muscle name for closer view. Mouseovers are particularly effective when you’re zoomed in.


Complete Muscle Tables of the Human Body. This site contains comprehensive information on human muscles. More than you’d ever want to memorize! Click on a muscle name for complete information.

Ever wonder why we dissect cats (size, availability). Wonder what a dog would look like? For a comparison, see these websites (scroll down till you see the pictures). You will be amazed at the similarity between the cat and the dog!

Muscle Models:

The nice thing about these websites is that most of the models are exactly the same as ours!

Photographs of models showing musculature. From Palomar College in San Diego County. Same arms and legs, torso as we have.

Muscles Tutorial. Another web site that shows individual muscle models like ours. Point and click, or mouse rollover to see the name. Very nicely done! The self-test is also good.

Here are easy links to each one:

Cerritos College Anatomy. Models. Click on the model you want (torso, arm, leg etc). Head/neck muscles are very detailed! Click on a muscle, and its name appears in the box below. Pretty quick and useful way to quiz yourself!

Muscle Models. From North Harris College (Texas), Click on the models; they’re mostly like ours! Not all are labeled; good exercise to label them yourself when you’re close to practical date.

Muscle models labeled with muscle names. Not really for quizzing yourself, as the labels are all there. Maybe better for just learning them!

Another site with labeled muscle model images. This one is better than the USI.edu site before. Can just click on an image, click back to the listing, click on an image, back to the listing. Good images. Many are probably worth printing or saving the images to study

Model pictures, unlabeled. From Montgomery College. Their “Medium Model” is just like our small man model, and their arm and leg models are the same as ours.

More unlabeled muscle model pictures from Indian River State College at

Photo Gallery of Anatomy Models. This rather bland-looking list of models links you to great photos of the models with numbers. Roll your mouse over the model for the name; this is great! You can quiz yourself, then see the answer, one by one...You can also click for other options (upper right corner).

Self-tests on Anatomy (diagram based). You can take short or long quizzes on musculature, divided into different aspects of the body. Nicely, after you’ve picked your answers, the right answers can be shown. Really great to quiz yourself!

Here’s something that will be useful to you. Go to Click on Images on the top. Type in “arm muscles model labeled.” See all of the images? Start clicking around! See what website is useful to you. You will probably encounter web sites that are listed above on this sheet, and others that are not. If you find something that is really useful, and it’s not on our list, email me! This is a very useful tool that you should employ throughout the semester. “Google-image” just about anything to get good images to look at!

Histology:

Muscular System. Jay Doc Histo Web. The University of Kansas Histology site. You can click on cartilage and bone to view photomicrographs and electron micrographs of histological sections. Expanded views show much detail.

Muscle. From Rutgers. Great site!!! Lots of text information accompanying the photomicrographs. Try the 5 Scopes shown at the end to quiz yourself.

LUMEN Virtual Histology. From the Loyola University Medical Education Network.

Muscle Histology. A good 1 page summary of muscle types.

Muscle Interactive Histology Atlas. Once you click on the link, click on Muscle. Then you can click on all red highlighted terms and slides.

General Resources:

Anatomy and Physiology WWW Sites. From North Harris College, Houston, Texas. Good resource! Check out the links on this page!

You may want to check out for a useful resource for all units in Anatomy.

There are, as you may know, videos of cat dissection on YouTube. I haven’t found many that I am impressed with, but please let me know if you do find any that are useful. One that isn’t bad is called Cat Dissection Shoulder Muscles. The ones by Dr. Fink, are pretty good. Just hard to see things, and he covers some that we don’t. Here’s his web site with links to all of his videos:

There are also videos on TeacherTube. For example, the Cat Dissection Muscle Overview is good. If you find ones that are useful, please email me!
Updated July 2013 Dr. Jane Horlings; Saddleback College