I collected bones of a deer in the field near Lake Buchanan in the
Texas hillcountry.  I want to loosely reassemble them and then paint
the vetebral column brightly with a pattern like a copperhead.  So,
detail is not too important, but I would like to understand the
basics.  I found the skeleton as a disturbed site of bleached bones
and a soapy soak greasy spot.  There was no head, hooves, hide, or any
meat left. I collected bones ALL from the same side of the deer that I
could see were attached.  I have one scapula, eight vertabra, one hip,
a front and back femur from the same side, and a front and back shin
bone.

Let us agree on the following terms:
   anterior  - on the horizontal, the head end.
   posterior - on the horizontal, the ass end.
   dorsal    - up side, the back of a shark or human
   ventral   - down side, the belly side
OK

Question 1:
If you look horizontally at any of the vertebra in the column you will
see either a "ball" or a "socket" joint in general.  If you look from
the eyes to the ass of the deer (seeing the anterior side of a
vertebrae) which do you see?

Ball or Socket?



Question 2:
If you look horizontally at any vertebra, looking at the anterior side
of the bone, where is the hole for the spinal cord hole?

Is the hole dorsal (up) or ventral (down).

Question 3:
The hip has been gnawed on and the details messed up.  If you look at
the posterior end of the pelvis (looking where the anus and birth
canal would be toward the head), there is a bony flat plate featuring
two large holes separated by a ridge compared to the openess of the
other side.  Are the bony plate sides of the pelvis up or down?
Dorsal or Ventral?

Hi - For the most part, deer bones are arranged in much the same order
as human bones (there are some differences, but all the questions that
you ask are the same).

1) I think that what you're trying to accomplish here is to tell which
end of each vertebrae points anteriorly (to the head) or posteriorly
(to the ass).  The easiest way here is to look at the spinous process
- the midline spike(s) which comes off dorsally and slopes towards the
tail.  Another tip is that the groove for the nerve root forms an arch
over the top, leaving the greatest gap on the posterior side.  Here's
a reasonable page from Gray's anatomy showing the vertebrae:

http://www.bartleby.com/107/20.html

2) The hole (the spinal canal) is dorsal to the body of the vertebra
(the biggest chunk of bone.

3) I believe that what you're describing is the sacrum - the bony
projections (ridge) on the sacrum point dorso-posteriorly (they're the
equivalents of the spinous/transverse processes (the dorsal and
lateral projections) for the sacral vertebrae)
In Gray's, figure 97, left is posterior, up is dorsal:
http://www.bartleby.com/107/24.html

Let me know if you have further questions.

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Clarification of Answer by synarchy-ga on 07 Dec 2002 04:53 PST

Search strategy: using Gray's anatomy online from www.bartelby.com